The Agent and The Soldier
by Ladieesailor
Summary: Isabelle Sullivan's life as a SHIELD Agent has been pretty clear cut from the start, but on her latest mission with Natasha and Clint they come up against a terrifying new enemy - who has plans for the recently recovered Bucky Barnes and the rest of the Avengers. Is she ready for her biggest mission yet? To protect those she loves and the man slowly captivating her heart? OC/Bucky
1. Chapter 1

**Good Evening lovelies.**

 **I'll keep this Author Note short and sweet so you can get on with the story - just a few important things to clarify. Firstly, this is my first Avengers Fanfic and I want to prematurely apologise because I'm from Northern Ireland and this is set in New York and I'm not entirely clued up on the different ways both sides of the pond say things so I will try my best to keep everything American but I apologise if the odd British way of saying things creeps in. Secondly, this picks up after CA:TWS and I have no intention of sticking to the story line currently laid out in the movies, I plan to take it on my own arc with maybe a few details from CA:CW and other movies included. And finally, as always:**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own MCU or the Avengers.**

 **I hope you all enjoy the story :)**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 1**

 ** _.*._**

 _"Anyone want to explain why he's here?"_

 _ **.*.**_

The last place anyone would expect to find Agent Isabelle Sullivan would be out in the bitterly cold snow. As a child, she had treasured the snow days that allowed her to escape from school just as much as the next kid, and even though her older siblings had tortured her with snowball fights, she enjoyed the time she had spent with her family running around without a care in the world. That scenario involved her being wrapped up nice and warm with a serving of hot cocoa after - not like her current situation, where she was tucked into an alleyway in the middle of New York with the soft flurry of snow settling around her - the only things keeping her warm were the three layers of socks currently inhabiting her trainers and her leather jacket zipped up tight against her neck. Everyone had to grow up eventually, and with her growth and personal heartache, Isabelle had come to hate the snow.

"Any chance Barton?" she growled, knowing full well his earpiece was in fine working order - despite the fact he had ignored her three previous requests for information. A low chuckle resonated through her own micro-earpiece.

"Be patient Izzy, surely you've not frozen your ass off already?" she could easily visualise the grin plastered across Clint Barton's face as he teased her. Although she had been an Agent for several years she was still the youngest out of the three of them - which meant she was always left with the crap jobs in any mission, a set up that Clint relished - mainly because if it wasn't her doing it, it would be him.

"Be patient? I've been sat here for four hours waiting on you and Romanoff to do your part!" she could hear the whine in her own voice but at this point she didn't care, the sooner she was inside the better.

"Don't worry we're on our way," Natasha chimed in. "You can really tell she's pissed when our surnames make an appearance, can't you Clint?" she laughed, "I feel like I'm being told off by a moth-"

"Inbound to you Iz," Clint hissed as he cut Natasha off, returning to his serious nature. "He's just cut across the street and passing you in five, four, three..."

Isabelle clocked the man straight away, crawling forward she shifted herself into a better position which allowed her a full view of the small figure entering the bar across the street, aptly named "The Slippery Pole".

"Time to do your thing Iz." she could hear Clint ready his bow as he spoke. "Give us the signal when you're ready and before you know it you'll be back at HQ sipping on hot cocoa with a good book."

"More like sipping a whiskey." She murmured as she stood up.

"Now now, the mission isn't _that_ bad." Natasha teased, with a subtle hint of warning in her voice.

Discarding what she liked to call her 'sneaking trainers' - and rather reluctantly her tights and three pairs of socks - Isabelle unzipped her leather jacket and donned a pair of killer heels as she hoisted her dress up so that it barely covered her bottom, doing the same thing up top by letting her small but ample breasts practically pour out of her bra. After _a lot_ of wiggling around she was finally ready. Careful to avoid any ice, she made her way across the street to the bar, already hating every second of it. The three of them – Clint, Natasha and herself – had been tasked by Fury to follow this man, day and night for the last three weeks. Every day he left his apartment, went down the street to the local grocery store and came out with a bag - allowing himself a quick cigarette before going back into his apartment.

That was it.

For three whole weeks.

Clint and Natasha had already scoped out his apartment and found nothing untoward, and since he didn't go anywhere else it had left them babysitting a man whose daily routine comprised of a ten-minute trip out and not much else. They had begun to think that they had somehow pissed Fury off and that this was his way of punishing them when the man left his apartment that morning and turned left instead of right. He ended up leading Clint and Natasha on a wild goose chase all over the city that had taken up most of the day – on occasions they had even lost him despite Clint's extensive tracking skills. Isabelle had stayed behind to keep an eye on the apartment, and since she had time on her hands, had decided to inform Fury that their targets routine had changed.

' _Bring him in now, as soon as he returns – and make sure he is alive'_ was all that Fury had barked before abruptly ending the call. When she informed Clint and Natasha, they had already formed a plan - they had overheard the man making plans to meet an acquaintance he had bumped into in a bar called The Slippery Pole, and now here they were, Clint and Natasha out of sight watching her back as Isabelle went to collect their prize.

"Just remember Iz, let's make it a quick one." Clint's voice pulled her from her thoughts. "In and out in one drink, don't be scared to use force if you have too."

"Scared to use force?!" Natasha's incredulous voice rose a few octaves. "We are talking about the girl who dislocated your shoulder when you decided to catch her off guard and pat her on the head Clint, I don't think this girl is scared to _use force_."

"Right guys shut comm's off, I can hardly do a decent job with you both fighting in my ear, contact me if you catch anything out of the ordinary." Isabelle muttered.

"Catch you on the flip side Iz!" and with his parting words Clint ended their communication.

Focusing on her task at hand, she finally made it to the entrance of the bar - despite walking like Bambi on ice. Removing her jacket before opening the door she strode in, flipping her hair over her shoulder so that the full effect of her dress was on show. There were only three people in the room – the barman, another man tucked away in the corner with a cigar wedged between his dry cracked lips, and then finally her target, who had made himself comfortable at the bar. Thanking Natasha silently for the lessons she gave her on walking in all kinds of heels she strutted forward, appearing way more confident than she actually felt.

"Is this seat taken?" she smiled down at the target, who only grunted in reply.

Slipping her jacket onto the back of the stool she threw her clutch bag onto the bar and signalled the barman. "One whiskey please, on the rocks." She had no intention of drinking it, it was just for show after all – although the smell of the targets own Whiskey intoxicated her for a split second. It had been months since her last drink.

"Can I see some ID ma'am?" he drawled as he lent towards her.

At 27, Isabelle was never going to complain when asked for ID, it made her feel young compared to her body, which, thanks to her last five years of working for Fury and Shield, had led it to feel more like that of a 60-year-old woman at the worst of times.

"Of course!" she beamed.

She hunted around in her clutch bag until she found her ID lodged at the bottom along with her makeup, chewing gum and taser. The taser accompanied her everywhere that didn't allow her to be fully geared up. Knives were her preferred choice of weapon and she knew as well as everyone else how lethal she could be with them. Unfortunately for her, this dress didn't allow her the chance to hide anything on her body. Just as she fished her ID out, one of her many lipsticks came out with it, bouncing off the counter and onto the floor. Cursing her clumsiness, she hopped off the seat and bent down to retrieve it, but just as she stood up, flipping her tousled hair out of her face and chancing a glance at the target, her earpiece flared back to life.

"IZZY, DUCK!" Clint screamed - but it was too late. The bullet from the barman's gun had already buried itself into her shoulder with a force that launched her across the floor. The pain was instant and the blood pooling from the bullet hole was pumping out at an alarming rate. She looked up just as an arrow embedded itself between the barman's eyes, dropping him in an instant. _Shit! The target!_ she panicked. Looking around, she clocked him coming out from behind the bar and heading straight for her, a small flick knife in his hands. Panicking, she used all of her energy to push herself away and towards the door, but he was on her in an instant. She calculated that she only had to hold on for a few more seconds before Clint and Natasha would reach her from their hideout up on the roof opposite. As he grabbed her arm she feebly stuck her own out in an attempt to defend herself, but he batted it out of the way and leaned in close to her, his rancid smokers breath washing over her, inducing an involuntary gag.

"Give Fury a message from me," he hissed, bringing the knife up high and ramming it down with precision into the bullet hole, causing a blood curdling scream to roar from her mouth - one that deafened even her ears. "If he tries to look for me again I will kill every single agent of his one by one until there are none left."

Isabelle didn't even notice him slip away, her vision blurred slowly as she covered the wound around the knife pointlessly with her hand - the pain was long gone. She heard the door next to her head smash open against the wall and a flash of red filled her vision before she completely blacked out.

 **o.0.o**

At first there was nothing.

She could neither feel, see or hear anything - but she could think.

Was this death? A blank canvas dotted with her thoughts?

But then she heard it, a slow beep followed by another, and then another.

"Iz? Iz can you hear us?" She knew that voice and yet she couldn't pin point the owner. It sounded concerned. Why? What had happened?

With all of her might she forced her eyelids to open, fluttering them a few times as they adjusted to the lights above her.

"Oh, thank god." A hand accompanied the voice, stroking her head lightly.

Forcing her eyes to open as much as they could, she was greeted by quite the scene in front of her. Natasha was to her left, the owner of the voice and the hand. Clint was perched on the end of the bed, his face drained of all colour as he clutched at the covers, and behind him dotted about the room were Fury, Steve Rodgers, Tony Stark and to her great surprise – the Winter Soldier, who as far as she was aware had disappeared after the Battle at the Triskelion.

"Either I am in hell," she managed to croak, "or shits hit the fan if the almighty Avengers are conducting a bed side vigil."

She went to sit up, but a sharp burst of pain radiated through her shoulder and down her torso, causing her to cry out.

"Hey easy Iz," Natasha gently pushed her back down. "Don't go undoing the Doctor's hard work."

As if the pain had jump-started her memory, the mission burst to life in front of her eyes - the barman, the bullet lodging into her shoulder and the target ramming the knife in just for good measure. Complete terror took over as she remembered the feeling of the knife being lodged into her shoulder - she didn't need a Doctor to tell her that her knife throwing days, and possibly her days as an Agent were over.

"How bad is the damage?" she winced, dreading the answer.

"Well firstly I would like to start by saying you're welcome!" Tony hopped off the table he had been occupying and plonked himself on the end of the bed next to Clint, beaming down at her.

"And why do I have to be thankful to the only man with a God complex bigger than God himself?" she gave pointed stares at Fury who innocently smiled down at her.

"Because I was the one who got Dr Helen Cho flown in on time to use her funky new Regeneration Cradle on you." He smirked nonchalantly at her as if it all made sense.

"The what?" she glanced around the room blankly as they all looked with slight unease amongst one another.

"In basic terms it took your messed up arm, fixed it up with some new tissue to bond to your cells so that it's no longer a messed up arm." Tony rolled his eyes at what Isabelle was sure was the sheer effort of having to dumb down his knowledge to her level. "We figured you didn't fancy an ugly metal arm like fancy boy back there." he signalled over his shoulder at the Winter Soldier, who burned daggers into the back of Tony's head.

Before she could retort Fury stepped forward. "Now I don't mean to start business when you've only just woken up Agent Sullivan but as you can see from your run in with the target it's imperative we know his last few moments, he was gone by the time Agents Barton and Romanoff got inside the bar."

"You didn't catch him?" she asked incredulously of her mentors.

"He disappeared into thin air, there was literally no trace." She could hear the frustration in Clint's voice - he looked troubled and exhausted - if this was worrying Clint then it was something she most certainly should be worried about - worried was not a reaction Isabelle was used to seeing on his face. As if sensing her fear, he looked back up and spoke softly. "But we will get him Iz, especially after what he has done to you." He gripped her ankle reassuringly.

"Anyway," Fury loudly interrupted, clearing his throat and giving her a pointed look with his one good eye.

She cast her mind back, untangling the memory as fleeting images of him pulling the knife above his head as he spouted his threat enveloped her vision. _The threat._

"He said to pass a message onto you Sir," she addressed him properly since they were talking business. "Saying that if you didn't stop looking for him, he would kill your agents one by one." Her stomach flipped. He had proved to be more than capable of inflicting damage and the full horror of this happening again hit her. "Sir, with all due respect, who the fuck was that?" she met his eye, daring him to try and get out of explaining himself.

"Dr Cho reckons you will be up and moving about come tomorrow, I'll come by at 0900 hours to brief you all." He glanced around everyone in the room. "He's more dangerous than I thought." And with that he walked out, leaving them all to look at each other in utter confusion.

"Now, you say I have a God complex," Tony broke the silence. "But that man really does believe he is God."

Ignoring him, Isabelle looked around properly and realised she was in Stark Tower's Medical Wing. As she finished her sweep of the room her eyes settled on The Winter Soldier once again. Nodding towards, him she threw the question out to the room.

"Anyone want to explain why he's here?" for the first time The Winter Soldier looked her in the eye. They were different from last they had met - they held memories, they held emotion - they looked alive.

Everyone turned to Steve, Tony lent against the bottom bed board and rested his head on his hands, sarcastically feigning interest. "Oh your gonna love this story Iz, Cap here fell in love and brought his old boyf-"

"I swear to God Tony-" Steve interjected.

"Ah!" Tony held his hand up with a finger pointed at Steve ready to correct. "I am God, don't forget." He winked at Iz.

She couldn't help but laugh, which only caused her more pain - she probably tolerated Tony the best out of everyone in that room, and from time to time she would allow herself to feed his ego and laugh when he was being genuinely funny - not asshole funny.

"Anyway," she looked up to Steve, beckoning him to answer her with her uninjured arm. "I know I wasn't invited along to your fancy mission with the Heli-carriers and saving the world again but Natasha updated me on what went down. He saves your life and now he's suddenly in the gang? Tony has done that a dozen times over and you would still cut him in half with your shield if you were given the chance."

"That's what I said!" Tony chirped in, lounging on the bed with his hands in the air like a child.

Ignoring him, she continued. "Plus the only run in I had with him involved me being dangled off a bridge by my neck, so, not the best start to a budding friendship." She grimaced as she remembered the pain of the grip his prosthetic arm had around her neck, thankfully Sam Wilson - the Falcon - came to the rescue.

Sighing, Steve walked over and put a hand on The Winter Soldiers shoulder.

"It's Bucky." Isabelle didn't miss the small flinch in the Soldiers eyes at that word. "We gave him some space after that whole situation and watched from afar, when we realised that more and more signs of Bucky were showing and that he was actively looking into his past - Fury decided it would be best if we aided him."

"So, while you three were out playing babysitter to what appears to be shaping up as our next pain in the ass, us two," Tony gestured to himself and Steve, "have been babysitting our own pain in the ass, I mean the amount of arm shaped holes-"

"Tony." Steve warned. "Enough."

"Look, you need some more sleep Iz, we can bring you up to speed on everything tomorrow along with Fury's brief." Natasha stroked her hair once more, smiling down at her. "But I promise, we won't let him get away with this, he will pay for what he has done to you." Her face set in complete determination.

"Yeah come on, everyone out!" Tony stood up and led the way out of the room, in turn, each of them came and gave her hand a quick squeeze before following him until it was just The Winter Soldier left. He went to walk out but paused at the door.

"I am sorry for hurting you, I can't…" he trailed off as if momentarily entering a trance. "I struggle to remember things, they had a tendency to wipe my memory after each mission." His eyes focused on the wall behind her - momentarily she felt sorry for him. "I want to make things right, especially with Steve, he was my best friend," his eyes broke away from the wall and looked down, burning into her own. "He _is_ my best friend, and whatever HYDRA have done to me I can fight it."

And with that he walked out, closing the door behind him, leaving Isabelle to ponder over everything she had learned since waking - but soon enough she slipped off into a deep sleep, her vision haunted by the sad eyes of The Winter Soldier.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**

 **Thank you so much to those who have begun to follow this story, have made it a favourite and to the lovely people who left me a review. I've decided to upload Chapter 2 a week earlier than planned down to the fact that Ireland have just won the Six Nations and a Grand Slam (a Rugby tournament for those who don't know) and I intend to spend at least the next 3 days suffering from a major hangover because of the celebrations.**

 **I like to keep these A/Ns nice and short so please enjoy this new Chapter and feel free to follow and favourite :)**

 **Reviewer Lizlil? Your wish is my command ;)**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 2**

 ** _.*._**

 _"Who has broken you now? Or have you been fighting with the puny one again?"_

 _ **.*.**_

When Isabelle finally stirred, she caught a glimpse of the winter sun creeping in through the window, it was morning - presumably the morning after the attack. Sitting herself up and adjusting her body - so that she was as comfortable as she could be - she removed all of the various wires and pegs that were attached to her body and turned the heart monitor off in the process. It's sharp monotonous tone was the last thing she wanted to hear. Looking down, she peeled back the dressing that had been so carefully placed around her shoulder - she couldn't help but widen her mouth in both shock and awe at how far on it had healed already. Although there were still various amounts of bruising and speckles of blood, the skin had knitted well together with barely a scar in sight. She lifted her arm up carefully to test its range and was rewarded with a sharp shooting pain across her shoulder and chest, causing her to hiss through her teeth and grip the bed sheets to balance herself as her vision momentarily blacked out.

"Too soon Iz, too soon." She muttered under her breath as she cradled her arm against her stomach.

"Dr Cho said you would do this." She looked up to see Steve standing in the doorway, cross armed and disapproving.

"Good morning to you too Cap," she grinned, knowing fine well her smile wouldn't disguise how beaten she looked. Steve naturally worried about his people and Isabelle always made a conscious effort not to add herself to his list. "Make yourself useful and help me put that on." She signalled to the sling hanging on the wall next to him. Without a word he unhooked it as he walked over to her bedside, slipping it over her head and helping her to gently pull her arm through.

"Sit still Izzy or else I'll never get this sorted and the pain will only get worse!" he admonished, giving her a faint smile. She bit back the tears and the urge to punch him with her good fist as his gentle guidance with her arm caused her a great deal of pain. She knew fine well that she would probably do more damage to herself than him, and one shredded arm was bad enough. Deciding to change the subject she caught his eye.

"So, what's the infamous Captain America doing up this early?" she wiggled her eyebrows at him, causing him to raise his own.

"What have I told you about calling me that?" he gave her a pointed stare. "It's Steve when I'm out of that suit."

"Okay, _Steve._ What are _you_ doing up at this time?" she corrected herself, rolling her eyes as she watched him fiddle with the fastener.

He finished securing her arm in the sling and took the seat next to her bed, his face falling into his hands as he paused for a second, before thrusting them through his hair in a rare show of frustration.

"Bucky's having nightmares, most of the time he wakes up as Bucky…" he glanced up at her, she noted for the first time how exhausted he looked, something she had missed last night. "…other times he's The Winter Soldier, only briefly, but it's enough to do some damage."

Isabelle pulled her legs up onto the bed, crossing them beneath her and leaning on her good arm. She had a lot of time for Steve, the more and more work Natasha and Clint started doing with the Avengers the more she was getting roped in. Although she preferred to stick to her Agent work with SHIELD, the majority of the time she was more than happy to lend a hand when it was required, and recently, after the whole Triskelion fiasco she had practically lived at Stark Tower in and around her missions.

"How much damage are we talking?" she asked.

"Let's just say Tony isn't going to be impressed when he goes into the kitchen this morning." He shot her a painful grin.

"Aside from Bucky's nightmares what else is troubling you?" she coaxed, kicking his arm softly with her foot.

"Is it that obvious?" he sighed, swatting her foot away with ease.

"I'm told I'm a good reader of the face." She smirked back. She didn't have to be told that, she knew it. She had a knack for not only never forgetting a face, but she could practically read the Avengers like the back of her hand, they had many talents - but hiding their feelings wasn't one of them.

"I'm just struggling to process having my best friend back, I never thought I would if I'm honest. When I saw his eyes for the first time after all those years they were completely dead, full of void and darkness." He looked up at her - she could see the lump rising in his throat. "I done that to him."

"Steve!" she hopped off the bed, kneeling as comfortably as she could before him and placing her good hand on his leg - more for her balance than anything else. After the Battle at the Triskelion she had spent quite a few nights with him to help sort his head out on the request of Natasha - who would have done it herself if she hadn't been sent back out on a mission - Steve had been through enough after being defrosted but had refused a psychiatrist, so unbeknown to him Natasha had put Isabelle in place. Although she didn't have any qualifications, she had a true knack for getting people to talk their feelings out. Plus, she owed it to Steve, there were certain demons of her own that he helped her put to bed.

"You know as well as the rest of us that anybody who fell from that height from a moving train would be mince meat on the other end, you didn't leave him behind because you rightly so didn't think there was anyone to go back for, and nobody for one second would have ever imagined what happened to him actually happened." She pulled back, forcing him to look up at her. "He needs you now more than ever Steve, if you trust him, that's good enough for me, regardless of personal feelings." She still wasn't quite passed what The Winter Soldier had done - even if he hadn't done it consciously, his hands had still done the dirty work - but that didn't currently matter.

"You can't help him heal if you're still broken over it all. Accept that it happened, move onward and upwards and help him get his life back, I'm sure with all this crazy technology that Dr Cho has she will be able to undo all the brain wishy washy stuff." She pointed out, earning a chuckle from him.

"You may be the youngest Izzy but you're sure full of wisdom, thank you. I know your right about this – I do need to get my act together." He squeezed her hand once and then released it before standing up.

"You'll make a decent Mom one day." He patted her on the head, knowing fine well it was an annoyance of hers.

"Steve, if yo-"

"WHAT THE DAMN HELL?!" a deafening roar filled the Medical Wing from the floor above. Both herself and Steve flinched.

"I guess that's Tony discovering the damage from last night?" she raised her eyebrows once more as Steve bolted from the room, no doubt about to put himself between an exhausted Bucky and an infuriated Tony.

 **o.O.o**

Nick Fury, ever the timekeeper, kept to his word and arrived at Stark Tower bang on 9am with Dr Bruce Banner in tow, who was carrying a significantly large briefcase under his left arm. Placing it on the table he took his seat next to Clint as Fury took his at the head of the table, Isabelle, Natasha, Bruce and Clint sat down one side – Tony, Steve and Bucky on the other.

Itching with impatience Isabelle leaned forward. "So, fancy giving us an update Boss?"

"Yes, Agent Sullivan I'm getting to it but first we have to wait for Thor." He glared at her, disapproving as always when she called him Boss, which only encouraged her to do it more.

As if summoned on cue, there was a vibrating thud as Thor landed outside.

"Have you both spent all morning practising that?" Tony queried, his voice dripping with sarcasm at Fury.

Isabelle jumped and let out a small cry as a hand slammed down on her shoulder.

"Watch her big guy, she's injured!" Natasha jumped up to check on her, but Isabelle waved her away, standing up and turning to the big blonde God who gently pulled her in for a quick hug.

"Who has broken you now? Or have you been fighting with the puny one again?" Thor cocked his mouth, knowing full well he was about to get a reaction.

"I hardly think you can call me puny!" Clint protested.

"You're all puny to me." Thor barked, taking his seat next to Steve as if that ended the conversation.

"Why do we have this guy on the team again?" Clint asked to the group, earning himself a few chuckles – the tension in the room lowered a little.

"He shoots lightening from his great big hammer-" Tony exclaimed as he pointed a finger at Isabelle, "and no that is not a euphemism Miss Sullivan."

She was about to retaliate and defend herself when she stopped, realising that it was a fair comment – her mind did tend to spend a lot of time in the gutter.

"Who wouldn't want him on their team? Plus, with our latest problem we could use a little spark to fry the guy after what he did." Tony grimaced at Isabelle's arm.

"Is anyone going to speak of this grave issue I was summoned for or are you going to keep speaking in riddles?" Thor slammed has arm down on the table.

"Yes, thank you Thor I was just getting to that." Fury commanded silence in the room with his words. "For the benefit of Thor, I'll catch him up so that we are all on the same page." When no one spoke, he continued. "Three weeks ago, I tasked Agent's Barton, Romanoff and Sullivan with tailing a man who I believed was rapidly becoming a danger to not only my SHIELD operatives but who was quickly assuming the potential of becoming a danger to the world." Opening the briefcase, he handed out a thin mission pack to each of them sat at the table. When Isabelle opened hers, the man's face - who not 12 hours ago sat on her body and plunged a knife into her - was staring back.

"His name is Viktor Sokolov." Fury continued. "From what I have gathered from various intelligence he was trained and served in the KGB before being declared deceased in a mission report – but as we can clearly see, that is not the case."

"Natasha, have you ever heard of him?" Steve asked the question that was on all of their lips.

"Contrary to everyone's beliefs I don't know every single Russian spy." she glared at them all before continuing. "But no, I haven't heard of him – he must have had a short career, if you do well within the KGB you make a name for yourself that _everyone_ knows."

Isabelle had long ago stopped being scared when Natasha alluded to her past, as terrifying as half the stuff she had done made her appear she had more than compensated with her work for SHIELD.

"You're correct Agent Romanoff," Fury's voice made Isabelle jump from her thoughts. "It was only his first mission back in 1991 when he was declared dead and yet, he turns up in the United States of America twenty three years later with a knack for espionage and stealing."

Fury signalled for them all to turn the page in the mission report, looking down, Isabelle turned her own page to reveal the little information that they had on him - little, but terrifying. Raised in Pechora - a little town in central Russia - and trained by the KGB after showing promise, he was activated on completion of training at the young age of 17 and sent on a mission deep into Afghanistan with reasons unstated. Two weeks later he was declared dead and supposedly buried by his wife in his hometown. That made him 40 by Isabelle's math. According to the report, three weeks ago, on the exact same day they were activated there was a breach at SHIELD HQ where information was taken pertaining to 'interests of SHIELD' and the only lead they had was the CCTV showing this man entering and leaving the building, all other cameras had been wiped.

"And what _interests_ has he taken information on?" Tony was the first to speak. "Since you've got us all in a little cosy circle I'll give myself three guesses." He mocked.

"From what we can analyse he accessed the Avengers Initiative and…" Fury looked over at Bucky. "And the information, field reports and interviews that we have held on Sergeant Barnes."

"Oh, so nothing personal then." Tony rolled his eyes, but his feigned disinterest didn't fool Isabelle, she could see he was as perturbed as the rest of them. "So, when are we all suiting up to go and turn this guy into confetti?" he went to stand.

"Sit down Mr Stark." Fury barked. "I know we don't have much on Victor Sokolov but from the little that we do have it won't be as simple as blowing him up!" he fixed Tony with his trademark fierce stare. "I sent Agents Barton, Romanoff and Sullivan – my best Agents - on his tail, I had hoped that maybe he was some cocky middle-aged virgin with nothing better to do than to waste his time getting high off the feeling of breaking into a high security building and stealing information. But apparently being followed was all part of the game, just as the Agents went in to extract him, Agent Hill updated me on who he actually was. We may not have much on this man, but what we do know is that there is a gap of 23 years in his history – which means that's 23 years of him learning a lot of shit and becoming a very equipped enemy, as proven by the fact that he fooled the brightest Agents I have and disappeared into thin air!"

No one spoke for a moment as they all slowly arrived at the same conclusion.

"A _very_ extreme sleeper Agent." Natasha growled as they all turned to face her. "I've never heard of someone lying low for more than a few years never mind twenty three. If he disappeared in 1991 that coincides with the year that the KGB was disbanded, which means whoever turned him into a sleeper knew KGB was about to end and had him in place with specific instructions before it happened." She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "The Avengers Initiative wasn't even a thought back then, so why has he targeted us?" she wondered aloud.

"Well we've not exactly been quiet in our actions." Bruce pointed out. "Maybe his handler is still alive and changed his orders? I mean not everyone approves of the idea of us."

"It doesn't work like that Bruce, what they do is-"

"As far as I'm aware I was always under HYDRA's control so why would they want my file?" Bucky spoke for the first time, cutting Natasha off mid-sentence.

"Who's this man?!" Thor turned as if only just realising Bucky was sat next to him.

"Bucky Barnes." Bucky held his metal arm out to Thor, who stared for a few moments before shaking the extended hand.

"Formerly the Winter Soldier i.e. our latest pain in the ass since your brother." Tony chimed in. "Speaking of, how is darling Loki?"

"He can be talked about later," Thor growled.

"As can the update on Sergeant Barnes." Fury held his hand up, stopping Steve in his tracks from explaining everything to Thor.

Isabelle could only smirk as Thor kept side glancing Bucky's arm. The God of thunder, weary of a human with a metal prosthetic arm. Oh, the irony.

"Agent Romanoff, I've got a mission for yourself and Agent Barton, come to my office later today – and no Agent Sullivan you _cannot_ go along." He sighed with impatience as Isabelle moved to ask the obvious. "As fancy as Dr Cho's weird ass healing machine is, you have still been shot and stabbed – you will return to the field when I say you can." She slumped in her chair, cradling her bad arm with her good one, trying her hardest to refrain from pouting.

"As for the rest of you, until we know what we are dealing with I want everyone to split up, Agents Barton and Romanoff are already taken care of-"

"I'll be heading back to Asgard - I appreciate your human problems, but I have some of my own right now, so yours can wait." Thor slammed his hand down on the table once more.

"Okay buddy, I know you're a God and you have all these super duper sparkly powers but if you slam your arm down on this table again I'm going to remove it and slap you across your perfectly angled face with it. Got it?" Tony pointed a single finger at the now laughing Thor.

"Yeah, I have some business to attend too as well that will keep me out of the picture for a while." Bruce stood up, changing the subject before Thor and Tony descended into another argument. "In fact I really should be leaving now." He glanced at Fury who only nodded. Isabelle sensed that there was an unspoken message going on between Fury and Bruce, but Isabelle couldn't bring herself to care enough to ask, and if Clint and Natasha did sense it she was sure they would ask Fury privately. Scooping up the mission report Bruce squeezed Natasha's shoulder as he walked by. "You know how to call me back if you guys need me." He gazed down at her.

"Yeah big guy." She patted his hand before he let it drop and walked from the room.

"Well I'm not going anywhere," Tony sighed matter of factly, placing his legs on the table, crossing one over the other. "I feel pretty safe in my tower, if our little friend was to make an appearance I'm sure me and Cap can take him – right Cap?" he turned to Steve, who only stared back incredulously, shaking his head.

"If Fury says-" Steve began.

"Yeah yeah we all have to split up but let's face it no matter where I go trouble always finds me so I should at least get to be comfortable in my own home when it does." Tony smirked, knowing he was right and no one could argue with that fact. "You don't have a home so you can stay with me, cause I'm kind like that Cap, plus you and that shield do come in handy for defence whilst I'm suiting up."

"What about Bucky?" Steve asked, placing a hand on the Soldier's arm. Isabelle couldn't help but smile at how protective he was over his old friend.

"Sergeant Barnes can't stay here." Fury cut off the ongoing conversation. "Viktor Sokolov took his files so will be aware of everything we have on him. _Everything_." He emphasised.

That little bit of information sunk in to Isabelle. Fury was right. Even though it appeared Bucky had managed to disengage himself from The Winter Soldier there was still a potential that there were people out there with the knowledge on how to erase him back to the perfect weapon. If Viktor Sokolov took Bucky's file it was for a reason, one she was sure that without action would become apparent.

"He's right," Bucky turned to Steve. "I need to disappear, so far no one knows I'm here as that wasn't on my file, but if this guy is as smart as we think he is the first place he will look is by your side."

"Disappear – yes. But not alone." Fury stood up. "We promised we would aid you in finding out who you were and to get rid of whatever it is in your head that so easily brainwashes you when a HYDRA agent possesses you, which is why I'm sending you away with Agent Sulli-"

"NO!" three roars came simultaneously from Steve, Tony and Bucky.

"Wow guys thanks for the vote of confidence!" Isabelle rolled her eyes at them.

"It's not that – its just – I'm not entirely in control, I could hurt you." Bucky voiced his concern, not looking at her.

"Second that." Tony snorted.

"Yeah this doesn't seem like the best idea isn't ther-"

"No, there is no one else Captain." Fury interrupted Steve. "All of this stays between us, Agent Sullivan's arm is nearly mended, but she needs a few weeks out in my opinion. I believe she can handle Sergeant Barnes and his nightmares for a few weeks until we have a better idea of what this punk ass mother fucker want's and then we can re-group."

Isabelle sat there stunned, Fury had to be extremely pissed for him to start dropping the 'M' bomb so early in the morning. The childish argument that was on the tip of her tongue settled back down her throat. Clearly there was no point even attempting to get activated with Clint and Natasha.

"Well, I say the man has a metal arm, he can do as he please's!" Thor chimed in, still side-glancing the arm, as if expecting it to attack him.

Without looking up Fury continued. "Agent Sullivan, Sergeant Barnes, get your bags packed. I'll have the details of a safe house sent to you within the hour."

Isabelle mulled over the details that she had learned this morning and came to her own conclusion of a plan of action.

"With all due respect Sir, if he accessed numerous files he may also be aware of our safe houses." She gulped slowly, knowing the next part was going to get her in a whole world of trouble. "But I have my own place we can go to on the other side of the city."

She was met by stony silence. After it started getting uncomfortable she glanced up through her eyelashes at the clearly fuming Fury and the incredulous stares of everyone else.

"Agent Sullivan, is there a particular reason I don't know about a property in your name?" Fury chose his words carefully.

"Screw SHIELD, why don't _we_ know about it?!" Clint hit her on the leg, signalling to Natasha and himself. Isabelle looked over to Natasha who only smiled and winked. Natasha had discovered the apartment a few months back after tailing Isabelle to it one night when she had walked out of Stark Tower at 3am, refusing to put up with the amount of noise Tony was making in his lab.

"Alrighty then," Clint had read their faces. "Why didn't _I_ know about it?!"

"Because I just needed my own space where no one could find me – my aunt left it to me in her will a few years back and I just might not have got around to informing SHIELD."

Fury's face had hit peak anger level, Isabelle could feel another 'M' bomb about to be dropped so she rushed on. "But on the bright side we now have a safehouse that we know is definitely safe for the time being for myself and Sergeant Barnes. And if anything goes wrong at least Steve is only on the other side of the city, him and Tony could be there within minutes."

Her logic seemed to work as Fury stood up, ending the meeting.

"Romanoff, Barton – come with me now, the sooner you start your mission the better. Sullivan, I want you and Sergeant Barnes gone within the hour, make sure you are always available for contact and we will have you both back in Stark Tower before you know it. Make sure everyone in this room is aware of the location of your apartment before you leave." He gave her a pointed stare as he walked past, waving to the rest of them. "Sit tight folks." And he was gone.

The silence was broken in a matter of seconds by Clint. "So seriously?! You never thought to tell me _you_ had a _secret_ hideout!"


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**

 **Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening Lovelies!**

 **Firstly I want to say a massive blanket thank you to everyone who has followed and set this story as a favourite! It certainly means a lot, and thank you also to those who have reviewed! Without further ado, here is Chapter 3! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 3**

 ** _.*._**

 _Rolling her eyes, she headed towards the door. "I don't think I even want to know."_

 _ **.*.**_

Packing wasn't always a necessity for Isabelle – she kept minimal possessions, and besides, anything of grave importance was already at the apartment - and with it only being a few weeks of hopefully 'hiding out' there, her collection of clothes and toiletries would suffice. So she now found herself sitting in the Medical Wing on the floor below, swinging her legs impatiently as she waited for Helen to come and tell her what the deal was with her rapidly healing, yet still very painful arm.

She reflected silently over the implications of everything that had happened, firstly, Fury had sent them in blind – a decision that she one hundred percent understood, but it made her realise how relaxed the three of them had become with their own personal safety. It was certainly something they would have to rapidly fix, starting with Isabelle making sure that from then on a knife would go with her everywhere – if she had even one strapped on her body yesterday she could have done some damage to slow Sokolov's getaway - or at least left a trail of blood. A lesson had been learned in all this and she would make sure not to forget it. You don't take people who can get into SHIELD HQ undetected lightly, and from then on, she wouldn't. Her second concern was the state of her arm and her talent with her knives, to say she was worried for her ambidextrous abilities was an understatement, so she had resorted to the fact she could only hope that she would gain the skill back quickly. Hope was better than nothing at all.

"Ah, good morning Izzy!" Isabelle disengaged herself from her thoughts and glanced up to see Helen walking in, clipboard in hand.

"Morning Helen, I see you've been busy since I last saw you." She glanced over at the regeneration cradle that was nestled away in the corner, Helen followed her line of sight – blushing ever so slightly. She never did cope well with receiving compliments about her work – Isabelle liked her more because of it, there were very few modest people in her life, especially since she had surrounded herself with the Avengers.

"Yes well, looks like I perfected it just in time." Helen observed, taking Isabelle's arm and flexing it slightly in the sling. "Does this hurt?"

"Not as much as it did this morning." Isabelle answered honestly, ignoring the faint shooting pain. "So, when will I be out of this and back to full fitness?" she nodded down to the sling.

Helen scrutinised her for a moment, her eyebrows knitting together in a hint of shock. Dropping Isabelle's arm back down carefully she sat down on the stool to bring herself down to eye level.

 _Ah, crap._ Isabelle cringed, it was never good when Helen Cho brought herself eye to eye with you in a conversation.

"Izzy…" Helen trailed off, trying to find the right words. "It doesn't matter how fast the regeneration cradle has healed your body, you still went through something pretty traumatic – whether you think that or not." Helen held her hand up, silencing the argument creeping up Isabelle's throat. "You need to give yourself time to heal and come to terms with it all, you know it's the same protocol for all agents especially in peace ti-"

"It's hardly peace time when there's a deadly psychopath out there who got in and out of SHIELD HQ - with ease might I add - and is currently in possession of a lot of sensitive information!" Isabelle protested as she moved to stand up - but Helen put her hands out to stop her.

"Let me cut you a deal Iz," Helen kept her hands held up as if expecting her to lunge forward. "I will sign you back on to full fitness _if_ shit hits the fan, but until then just play Fury's game." She moved her hands slowly, placing them on Isabelle's shoulders sympathetically. "It's the best I can do."

"I know." Isabelle grumbled - her last chance at joining her mentors for their mission was gone, if she couldn't break Helen and her annoyingly good nature then she had no chance with having another go at Fury. All she could do was resolve herself to the fact she now had some spare time on her hands. Standing up, she offered her hand out to Helen. "Thanks for fixing me up, I really do appreciate it."

Helen took her hand, shaking it firmly before guiding her out of the Medical Wing and back into the lift.

"Enjoy this time off Izzy, you've worked non-stop for five years – you deserve this break."

And with that Helen pushed the button, allowing the doors to close between them, sending Isabelle back up to the top floor.

 **o.O.o**

"Look, it will work – just give them to her as a precaution she can't argue with that."

Isabelle was greeted by Steve, Tony, Bucky and Sam Wilson huddled over by the kitchen counter as she exited the lift. She was hoping to say goodbye to Clint and Natasha before they left but she appeared to be too late, hopefully they could afford a phone call later before they went completely silent for the mission.

"Oh, I bet I can prove you wrong on that." She smiled as she walked over to them, cradling her arm. "Speaking of, what am I about to argue against?"

"Look, Iz." Tony shared a glance around the rest of them. "We know your fighting skills are undeniably amazing and if we were all plain old boring humans I'm sure you could take us all down in a heartbeat." He walked over to her, holding a small black box in his hand. "But you're injured, and good old Bucky over there isn't exactly human, and I think I speak for everyone when I say we would all feel a little better if you had these on your bedside table."

Glancing at them all with suspicion she took the box and opened it. Sat neatly in the velvet interior were 5 darts, all filled with a clear viscous liquid. Sighing, she shut the box and placed it on the counter, rubbing her left temple with her free hand. As much as she hated to admit it - it made sense in her current situation, even at full strength armed with all of her knives she didn't think she would stand a chance of stopping him in his tracks - let alone with an arm that still hurt when she sneezed.

"It makes sense," she muttered, noting the look of relief across all of their faces, especially Bucky's. "I'm guessing this is some kind of sedative?" she directed her question at Tony.

"First thing we worked on after he smashed up my favourite whiskey collection." Tony glared over at Bucky before continuing. "Took a couple of attempts but we nailed it finally – will put him out for at least an hour, so that gives you enough time to phone one of us three," he signalled to himself, Steve and Sam. "We would prefer it if one of us was there when he wakes so that we can assess _who_ is waking up."

Isabelle looked over to Bucky, who was gazing behind her out of the window, a worried expression knitted between his brows as he absent-mindedly chewed at a fingernail.

"And how do you feel about this?" she cocked her eyebrow at him as he dropped his hand from his mouth, seemingly choosing his words carefully.

"It was my idea," he crossed his arms, almost hugging himself as he walked closer to her. "It protects me as much as it protects you and the city, Steve can punch me out of my nightmare – but if you can't wake me there is no telling what I would do." He looked towards Steve, his best friend - his only friend, who nodded back reassuringly. "I have to get rid of the Winter Soldier within me, but I need to cling onto Bucky if I'm going to do that, I can't afford to be trapped inside the Winter Soldier, even if it's only a nightmare."

She found it strange how Bucky saw his previous life as someone to cling to and not someone to go back to – but that was something she could mull over and dissect later, for now she had to get them safely to her apartment.

"You all packed?" she asked as she scooped the box up off the counter.

"Yeah." He signalled to the black sports bag by the lift. "Ready when you are."

Steve walked over to Bucky, clasping him hard on the shoulder, looking him in the eye before pulling him in for a tight hug. Bucky paused for a split second before hugging him back. When they released they quickly shook hands, something Isabelle was sure they could never delete from their mannerisms – the two men from a different era. Bucky then walked over to Tony, catching him off guard by holding his hand out to him also. Isabelle was bemused to see the utter confusion and almost admiration slip across Tony's face as he took Bucky's hand in one strong shake.

"At least my Tower will stay in one piece for a few weeks whilst your gone – although I do feel sorry for Isabelle's apartment, if only slightly." He winked at her.

Steve and Sam went to move towards her, but she held her hands up, causing them to pause in their tracks.

"Are you guys going soft?!" she asked incredulously. "I go out on deadly mission's all the time without so much as a 'bye' or 'be careful', but now that I'm going to spend the next three weeks babysitting your best friend you want to start dishing out the hugs?!"

"Hey, hey - he's not my best friend." Sam pointed out. "No offence." He glanced at Bucky who only shrugged his shoulders in reply.

"It's understandable, I did give you a pretty good beating-"

"It was not a beating!" Sam protested as he moved towards Bucky, an argument at the ready on the tip of his tongue.

"Okay, no hugs Iz." Steve laughed as he stepped between the two of them. "But take care of him, please." His smile faded with the last word as an understanding passed between them, he didn't have to ask her to do her best because he knew she would.

"Right, let's get going before I get an angry message from Fury about why my ass hasn't removed itself from Stark Tower yet." She pocketed the box and grabbed her jacket. "I'll shoot you all a text with my address, I trust our internal network is still safe?"

"C'mon Izzy, don't second guess Jarvis like that or you'll hurt his feelings." Tony threw his hands up in mock horror. "Of course the network is still safe, you'll know when it's not, trust me." he grinned like a child as he pulled his phone out and started tapping away wildly.

Rolling her eyes, she headed towards the lift. "I don't think I even want to know." she muttered.

"Nope, you don't." came his quickfire response.

"Hey, Iz?" she turned to see Sam holding up her belt filled with her battle worthy knives. "You not gonna need this, y'know, just incase?"

Bucky had arrived by her side as the lift opened, he grabbed his bag and signalled for her to lead the way.

"Nah, I've got plenty in my apartment." She stepped into the lift before Bucky, winking at the three stunned men looking back as the doors closed between them.

 **o.O.o**

The minute they entered the street Isabelle flagged a cab down, earning her a confused glance from Bucky.

"Is it wise to get a cab?" he asked before elaborating further. "I mean this guy seems to be capable of anything, surely tailing a cab would be a piece of cake?"

Isabelle could only laugh as she indicated for him to get in, closing the door once they were both comfortable and giving the cab driver directions to a cafe a few blocks from her apartment. As he set off into the New York lunchtime traffic the cab driver put his headphones back in, continuing to argue on the phone call that they had apparently interrupted. This suited Isabelle fine, enabling her to talk freely.

"Firstly, Tony, as you will soon learn thinks of everything, and I mean everything. If that guy was anywhere near Stark Towers, the many facial recognition drones that Tony has situated around his prize tower would have picked up on him already." She smiled reassuringly up at him. "There are roughly 13,000 yellow cabs in New York Bucky, even if Sokolov did magically guess that we were going to leave Stark Towers at this exact time and get into this exact cab he wouldn't know which one we would be getting and he would have a difficult time tailing in this traffic." her smile turned into a frown. "I'm almost hurt you think I couldn't spot a tail."

"Well, you walked right into his set up in the bar." He looked at her blankly before the panic set in as he realised what he had just said. "Shit, no, I didn't mea-"

"It's okay," she grimaced, he was right, and it pained her to admit that. She had indeed walked straight into an ambush with her eyes tightly closed, but on the plus side it gave her the push she needed to be more vigilant – granted she would have preferred it if that lesson hadn't of come with having her arm nearly blown and hacked off. "You're right, we made a grave error, but it was also a lesson for us and a reminder not to slacken off on our own security."

"I still don't understand why Fury didn't tell you guys what Sokolov had done, doesn't it feel like he sent you in blind?" he asked sheepishly as he picked at his nails once more, not looking at her. This was a common stress-relieving tactic, if she hadn't of felt sorry for him she would have laughed that the Winter Soldier was sat next to her stressing so badly that he was picking his nails to pieces.

"Not necessarily, we get sent in blind on the odd occasion, especially if it's just reconnaissance which is how that mission started. Normally we put it down to two factors, firstly that the person sending us into a mission doesn't have any information on the target," she held up her forefinger quickly followed by her middle. "And secondly, because they know that Agents have weaknesses and if fully briefed it could impact our feelings on the mission. So, for example if we had known that he held information on the Avengers that's close to home for us, Fury could have been wary of us making mistakes and chosen to believe in our skill to bring someone in without knowledge rather than be uncertain if we were fully clued up." She done a quick 360 glance, also taking into account the near screaming match that the cab driver was now having with the poor soul on the other end of the phone, which drowned out her conversation with Bucky alone. She hastened to continue as she realised they were close to their stop. "Thankfully Fury wasn't aware until the minute he asked us to bring Sokolov in, informing me there and then before I went to retrieve him could of clouded my judgement and instead of going in calmly, I could of gone in with a dire need to grab him quickly instead of sticking to our plan – which is a big no no for any agent, I know to you and Steve it seems like a lack of loyalty but Fury withheld that information for good reason. He has to look at the whole picture, not just the fragments, as much as I hate to praise Fury it was a good call to send us in blind – despite the outcome for myself."

The cab pulled up outside her favourite cafe - Nelly's - just as she finished talking. Not allowing Bucky the chance to reply she paid the driver who kindly stopped his phone call for a split second to thank her before she got out. Bucky walked around the cab and stood beside her, shouldering his bag as he glanced down at her. "I'm sorry, it's not my place to question how SHIELD operate, you are the ones protecting me after all."

"It's okay." She brushed her hand against his arm as she went to comfort him - she could see he was regretting his comment - but pulled away at the last minute, thinking better of it. She turned instead, signalling to the near empty diner. "Fancy a bite to eat?"

"Now you're talking." He grinned at her, holding a hand out and gesturing for her once again to lead the way. She could get used to this gentlemanly attitude.

 **o.0.o**

It didn't take them long to order their food and stuff their faces, the minute Bucky placed his knife and fork down Isabelle chucked a twenty-dollar bill on the table and stood up. She hadn't realised how hungry she was, noting that she hadn't eaten since the day before yesterday. "Let's get going, I want to get you in and settled before it gets too dark."

Bucky followed her silently as she led him out of the door, she took a series of twists and turns, knitting a nonsensical path until she was content that they were completely alone. Taking a key out of her pocket she took a sharp left and opened a faded red door with ease before slipping inside, Bucky following closely behind her.

"Did you notice anyone?" she asked as she headed up the steps to the second floor, taking two at a time.

"No, smart thinking by the way – going around in circles to draw anyone out." He shot her a brief smile as he levelled with her on the landing before her door.

"It's an old habit that I like to keep up on, you should of seen Natasha's face the first time she tailed me here." Isabelle chuckled at the memory. "I had her sussed in five minutes."

Opening the door, she hit the light switch to her left to reveal an open planned kitchen and living area that grew and grew the further you looked.

"Bloody hell, what was your Aunt? A millionaire?" Bucky stared incredulously as she set herself to work, opening the curtains to let the slowly fading sun splash the last of its light in.

"Something like that." She muttered, struggling with the last curtain that had snagged on a hook. Isabelle didn't even know how her Aunt afforded this place, when she was alive she had a small cosy apartment not far from here that Isabelle used to visit when she had the time. Her Aunt - her Mom's sister - was her only living relative, so when she passed away she was surprised to be given this place – no explanation, nothing. When Isabelle enquired about the other apartment that she had known as her Aunt's she was met with a brick wall of silence, being told it was none of her business. The apartment itself was already immaculate when she had moved in, but Isabelle had found herself wanting to put her own touch on it. So she redecorated the whole place, painting both bedrooms and the living room a pale grey, installed a new kitchen and rewarded herself with the biggest, comfiest lounge sofa that she could find.

"Here, let me help." Bucky stirred her from her thoughts as he reached up higher than her 5'5" frame could manage and carefully yanked the curtain free, allowing her to open it fully.

"Thanks." She gave him a tender smile as the shooting pain returned to her arm - ignoring it she walked past him, pulling it closer against her chest, making a mental note to hunt around for some pain killers in her bathroom cabinet once she had him settled. "Let me show you to your room." Going down the narrow hall way off to the right she opened the first door on the left, revealing a plain room – a built in wardrobe on the left-hand side, a double bed in the middle accompanied by two bedside cabinets and a small dresser underneath the window.

"Unfortunately, we are going to have to share a bathroom but I'm sure we will manage," she signalled to the wardrobe. "You'll find some towels in there, feel free to make the room your own." The pain was getting stronger but she ignored it, holding onto the door knob for support as her head spun, her mouth drying quickly of all saliva. She was just dehydrated, she hadn't bought a drink at the cafe - that was surely the source of the sudden onset of pain and light headedness. "Is there anything else you need?" she asked.

"No, but I have a feeling you'll need these." He chucked his bag on the bed, unzipped it and pulled out three plain boxes before walking back over to her. "Dr Cho had me pack them, c'mon," he put a gentle arm through hers and took her weight, "lets get you a glass of water, you look like you need one."

A stronger pain now radiated down her arm causing her to yelp and stumble, thankfully Bucky had enough of her weight to catch her. Leaning down he scooped her legs out from underneath her and cradled her against his chest as he carried her out of the bedroom. Completely embarrassed at how pathetically weak she was being she put her good arm across her face as her cheeks burned, no doubt turning a blossoming red at the same time.

"Bucky I can walk really I'm ju-" before she finished her sentence he had already plopped her down on the sofa, chuckling as he fetched her a glass of water from the kitchen.

"I thought you were the one who was supposed to look after me?" he cocked an eyebrow as he popped her two tablets from each of the three packets Helen had provided.

"When did Helen give you these?" she probed, ignoring his question.

"Before you went to see her, she said you always forget to take any meds she supplies you with but these ones were important." He held the glass and all six pills out. "Now take them."

"She didn't even tell me to take any!" she defended herself between each gulp, he only shrugged in reply.

Removing her phone from her pocket she turned it on to see she had 3 messages, one from Natasha, one from Clint and one from Helen, before she began to read them she shot out a quick text with her address to the relative people before she forgot.

Opening Natasha's message first as she was dying for an update, she scrolled through the lengthy text.

 _Me and Clint won't be contactable for a while Iz, lay low and keep your instincts heightened. I dropped some updated files on Sokolov in your room before we went, along with some files Bucky might be interested in when he is ready. We both know part of the battle to recovery is in the mind, you can help him overcome those barriers. Stay safe and remain vigilant. Nat._

Smiling and slightly relieved to have heard from her mentor she shot a quick reply wishing her luck and safety before opening Helens message.

 _If I told you to take them you would have refused, no doubt by now you've already nearly collapsed – good. Might teach you to appreciate medicine a bit better. Keep taking them three times a day for three days before taking that sling off, then just take them when you need them. Call me if there are any problems._

"What's so funny?" she glanced up to see Bucky looking at her, head cocked to one side, she hadn't even felt him join her on the sofa. She realised she must have been grinning like an idiot at Helen's text.

"Just Helen, giving me a telling off in text form." She waved her phone. "Thank you, by the way for giving me the tablets, they are already working." It was true, a calming numbness was now spreading across her chest and running down her arm, allowing clarity to return.

"But also," she held a finger up and gave him her best death glare. "This stays between us, if Tony finds out we weren't in my apartment five minutes before you had to swoop my pathetic ass into your arms I'll never hear the end of it."

He held his hands up, eyebrows raised as he spoke. "Trust me I'm more scared of you than I am of him, your secret is safe with me."

"And that includes Steve." She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Damn."

Glancing back down at her phone she opened the last text message from Clint.

 _Full on house party when this business is over – still can't believe you didn't tell me Iz! Be careful, try and keep all limbs intact by the time I get back – and remember, if I wouldn't do it then don't do it either. Keep a low profile and don't go finding trouble. But if you do we've left a few nice surprises underneath your mattress._

Oh, how he knew her so well. She had no intentions at all of being a sitting duck for the foreseeable future. She was only asked to babysit Bucky, that didn't mean she couldn't do some digging and take him along too. But that could wait, her priority was getting back to full strength, even she wasn't so stupid as to think she could take on anyone with her arm in the condition that it was. Healing and knife training first, finding the bastard who done it to her second.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N**

 **I don't believe in denying my readers a relationship that I have stated will happen, so I hope the small Bucky/Izzy notions in this chapter satisfy people :)**

 **Thanks once again to those that have reviewed, set this as a favourite and followed the story since the last update - I really do appreciate it, and please do continue! I love to hear peoples thoughts and feelings on the story and I'm glad that so far everyone is enjoying it :)**

 **Chapter 4 everyone! Enjoy!**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 4**

 ** _.*._**

 _"Maybe a little more warning next time you decide to run at me launching knives."_

 _ **.*.**_

Whilst Bucky had commandeered the bathroom to wash up, Isabelle had headed into her bedroom - closing the door with a firm slam to hopefully indicate that she wanted to be left alone for a little while. Dragging her feet behind her she flung herself down onto the bed as exhaustion washed over her body, both mentally and physically - she took a deep breath in, savouring the smell of fresh bedding. Just as she was getting comfortable a vibration in her pocket caused her to jump, stirring her before she descended into what she liked to call her 'red zone' - the little moments in her day where she became so relaxed that her mind wandered elsewhere. She pulled her phone out to see that it was a text from Tony.

 _Whats up squirt. I hope the new hulk has settled in alright - now you can enjoy him smashing your possessions to pieces! I have Jarvis locked onto your co-ordinates so that if we need to get there in a rush we can. Stay safe. Don't do drugs._

Isabelle couldn't help but roll her eyes, sometimes Tony was funny, but the majority of the time he most certainly wasn't. Shooting up into a sitting position she glanced towards her bedside cabinet - Tony's text had reminded her about Natasha's - and sure enough like she had said in her message there was a large pile of files – the top one with Sokolov's name on it. Picking it up she flipped through to the fresh page that had been added in at the back, the top paragraph contained the last known address and co-ordinates of his wife – which if Isabelle were to make an educated guess was where Natasha and Clint were now heading - but the rest of the page lead for a pretty gruesome read. The body of Freddie Campbell, an administrative aide that Isabelle only knew in passing was found after SHIELD had conducted a sweep of all their permanent personnel and realised he was missing. Agents Erikson and Dames – two of Clint's former protegees - arrived at Freddie Campbell's apartment and discovered his strangled corpse in bed with his left hand neatly sliced off – the hand nowhere to be found.

Isabelle looked away from the report for a minute, trying to control the feeling of utter horror clawing at her stomach, she was certain that she was coming to the same conclusion that everyone else did. Swallowing hard, she carried on reading to discover that she was indeed correct.

It appeared that Sokolov had expertly removed the skin on the left hand in one piece and fashioned it to his own, allowing him to easily bypass the bio-metric hand scanner at the entrance to SHIELD HQ. There wasn't much else to read into other than a small paragraph by the writer of the report - Agent Hill herself - who hypothesised that whatever computer terminal Sokolov used to extract the stolen files from was near impossible to detect, there was no trace on any system other than a warning to Fury's computer that the files had been accessed - a protocol Fury had put in place himself in the off chance a situation like this would arise. Sokolov had gotten in, taken the information he wanted, scrambled all of the CCTV - except the ones monitoring the entrance - and left without a trace. On one hand Isabelle was impressed, but on the other she was completely horrified. The last paragraph was a handwritten note from Agent Hill detailing why it had taken so long for SHIELD to receive accurate information on Viktor Sokolov – even when they did find out his identity, all searches against his name were also scrambled, leading Agent Hill on a tumultuous three weeks of painfully undoing the damage and piecing together the little knowledge that was now available on him - Isabelle would happily bet a months wage that more would surface. The fact that he didn't wipe his profile from any of the international databases and that he kept the CCTV by the entrance completely viable told Isabelle that this was a man who wanted to be found, which meant their next steps had to be very careful – so far he appeared to be a couple of steps ahead of them at every turn.

Closing the file she chucked it on the bed behind her, turning her attention to the rather large bundle that was left. A quick glance through confirmed that they were mission reports acquired by SHIELD on every single mission Bucky had been sent out on, no details were spared. Isabelle wasn't sure how in the hell SHIELD had got their hands on these, with Bucky's mind being placed in a blender after every mission, it hardly came from him. Deciding that was a problem for another day she picked them up and dumped them in the bottom drawer of her dresser without a second glance, she didn't want Bucky seeing them just yet – she was more than aware that not only did Bucky struggle to remember who he was, he also struggled to remember what he had done as the Winter Soldier. Every time he completed a mission he was scrambled, a blank slate willing to kill anyone with no memory of his previous victims to play with his conscience. Despite her interest, Isabelle couldn't bring herself to read them either, she had enough queasiness in her stomach as it was with the whole Sokolov issue.

An abrupt knock on the door interrupted her from her thoughts. "Yeah?"

Bucky opened it and stepped in, a lurking shadow in her faint bedside light. She noticed he had slipped into a dark grey pair of thin sweatpants and a fitted long sleeved red top. It was almost unsettling seeing him in such relaxed clothing.

"What's the plan?" he crossed his arms as he lent against her door frame.

"What do you mean?" she squinted her brow in utter confusion.

"I'm not stupid Agent Sulli-"

"Call me Iz." She interjected – she hated being called such a formal name when she was out of Agent mode, and besides, the rest of the Avengers called her Iz or Izzy so why shouldn't he?

"Okay Iz," he corrected himself. "I'm not stupid, I know you aren't just going to sit around for the next few weeks playing babysitter, so whatever your plan is tell me, cause I'm in."

 **o.0.o**

"So he meticulously peeled the skin off of this guy's hand and wore it like a glove?"

Isabelle had decided that if she was going to start formulating a plan of action she at least needed to do it with a full stomach, but as they ate their Chinese take-out and poured themselves over the file in front of them she was starting to regret it.

"Yup," she mumbled, trying to ignore the images forming in her head.

"I don't know whether to be impressed or disgusted." Bucky pondered as he shoved some more noodles into his mouth. The worst thing was, Isabelle wasn't sure herself, she knew she should be repulsed, but at the same time the meticulous detail almost had her in awe.

"Yes well let's move on, I'd rather not be talking about dead bodies and skinless hands whilst I eat." She picked up some chicken with her chopsticks, hesitating before placing it in her mouth and chewing, ignoring the uncanny resemblance it now appeared to share with human fingers.

"So, come on then, what's the plan?" he lent back against the armrest of her sofa, crossing his legs one over the other in front of him.

"Well firstly, I need to let my arm heal." She waved it up and down as if to emphasise her point. "Then I need to make sure my arm can still do all the things it could do before – throwing knives, hand to hand combat, combat with knives, defending against kniv-"

"So basically, you want to make sure you can throw, fight, live and breathe knives." He summarised with a snort.

"Yeah, pretty much." she shrugged, trying to keep her nerves at bay - the fact that she didn't know whether a return to full fitness would be possible was another factor in her exhaustion. Her next move heavily depended on her trust in her body to do exactly what she wanted it to do.

"Well I can help you with that." He spoke between mouthfuls. "Knives are kind of my forte as well." He paused, mid mouthful - his eyes widened, as if he was caught in the act of a dreadful deed.

"Bucky, are you alright?" she chucked her carton of food down and shuffled closer, placing a hand on his leg. When he didn't respond she dug her nails in, forcing him out of his trance.

"What did you say?" he looked down at her blankly, almost as if he had never seen her before.

"I asked if you were alright?" she eyed up the black box sitting on the kitchen worktop, spying out a path to it if needed.

He followed her line if sight, sighing. "Don't worry Iz, I'm still me. Just sometimes some of the words that come out of my mouth feel like it's the Winter Soldier speaking, I mean, who brags about being good with knives?"

"I do." She answered, satisfied that he wasn't about to flip personalities.

"Yeah but I've killed god knows how many people." He placed his carton down on the floor, letting his head fall into his hands.

"Once again, I'm completely guilty of that too." She squeezed his leg, keeping the pressure until he glanced up. When someone was going through a mental battle, the best thing was always human touch - it subconsciously reminded them that they weren't alone. "Bucky, you've got two options, you can wallow and torture yourself with the thought of it all or you can use your skill set for the greater good." She reached around behind her and pulled one of her favourite knitted blankets off the back of the sofa and wrapped it around herself. When she hit people with cold hard facts she at least liked to be comfortable. "I'm not going to bullshit you and tell you that ' _it wasn't you_ ' or that ' _its all in the past now_ ' – that's what Steve is for. It _was_ you, it _was_ your hands and we both know its not all quite in the past for you yet."

He didn't stir as she stopped talking, she tugged at the blanket, unsure on whether to continue with her analysis, but as the silence grew she decided there was no harm in giving her opinion.

"What I'm trying to say is that you've got a real chance here to redeem yourself. Look at Natasha, she probably had more kills than you whilst she worked for the KGB, and yet when Clint was sent out to kill her he saw her potential and brought her in instead, giving his personal recommendation for her to begin training to become an Agent." She paused as Bucky's head flew out of his hands and his eyes widened in complete surprise, clearly from his reaction he hadn't had the full update on all of the Avengers yet. Glad that she now had his undivided attention she continued. "Which as you can see she has excelled at – there is no reason what-so-ever that you can't achieve the same. If you don't do it for yourself, at least do it for your victims, make them the last of the innocent and make the rest of your kills people who _deserve_ death." She kept eye contact the whole time, hoping her words had hit a nerve - emotions were good, something that Bucky lacked to show. He didn't say anything for a while as he let his head fall back into his hands again.

The silence was beginning to get incredibly awkward and Isabelle was considering going to fetch some more beers just to get out of the tension when he finally sat up properly, swinging his legs onto the floor and resting his elbows on his knees as he clasped his hands together.

"Steve said you had a way with words." He gave her an exhausted smile. "I just didn't realise you were _that_ good."

She breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he hadn't dismissed her views.

"I hear where you're coming from Iz but it's imperative that I remove this block in my head, I need to remember what I have done. I need to get rid of whatever it is that allows someone to control my body." He gazed off into the distance, zoning out once more. "I can't become a mindless killer again."

Part of her felt guilty that she had the potential answer to unlocking his memories sitting in the bottom drawer of her dresser, but he wasn't ready to read everything that he had done, not yet.

"Helen is working on that little brain-washing issue, but until then we can work on everything else. Agreed?" she held a hand out to him, capturing his attention back from wherever his mind was. Taking it firmly he shook it once.

"Agreed."

 **o.0.o**

The next two days passed in a blur, they spent the days going over and over the tiny little morsels of information that they had on Viktor Sokolov - double, triple, quadruple checking that they hadn't missed any little details. To Isabelle's relief Bucky was either sleeping soundly or staying awake during the night, either way there were no nightmares forcing her to launch a dart at him. Come the third day, Isabelle was practically bouncing off of the walls ready to take her sling off.

"Dr Cho said to only take it off if it didn't hurt, now are you su-"

"Yes! Yes! Hurry up!" she lambasted him, flipping her hand in a circular motion as if that would speed up the process. Shaking his head and sighing at her impatience he undone the Velcro at the back, carefully sliding her arm out and setting it free. She didn't waste a second before she had it stretching in all directions, careful at first but then with a little more weight behind her shoulder to really test it. The relief washed over her as she felt no pain. She ran out of the living room and into the wardrobe in her bedroom, picking up a faded old belt that was full of her favourite throwing knives and hurrying back out to the living room. Without a word she ripped a knife free and launched it at Bucky, who ducked and rolled forward expertly before tackling her onto the ground.

"Woah Bucky calm down!" he wrestled her onto her back and flanked a leg across either side of her stomach, pining her hands above her head as he held his own knife to her throat. Interesting, she hadn't noticed it on his body.

"What the hell Iz?!" he snarled at her as his grip tightened.

"I was testing my arm out!" she tried to protest as he dug the knife in against her neck. "Jesus Bucky get off!" she brought her leg up, connecting it with the back of his skull, distracting him enough for her to rip an arm free and grip his knife hand. "I was testing my arm out!" she yelled for a second time - this time she seemed to get through to him.

After giving her face the once over, as if trying to detect a threat - and clearly satisfied that she wasn't - he climbed off of her, offering her a hand begrudgingly as he stood up - which she gladly took.

"Maybe a little more warning next time you decide to run at me launching knives." He growled, releasing her hand and turning away from her. He walked over to the wall to inspect the knife embedded about two feet above where he had stood moments before - with ease he reached up and yanked it out. "On the plus side at least you missed."

But Isabelle wasn't happy at all. "Yeah I did miss, completely!" she tried hard to restrain her tears but she couldn't, instead she threw herself back onto the sofa and covered her face.

"Please tell me that was the point?" his voice was tinged with confusion.

Calming her beating chest, she looked up at him. "Yes, but I was aiming just past your left ear. A week ago I could have launched that knife with my eyes shut and have it graze your ear as it travels, but today?" she let her head fall into her hands, mimicking Bucky's earlier despair. "Today I was a whole two feet off. That is a momentous shift in aim."

Bucky said nothing as he sat down next to her, she watched through her fingers as he slowly placed the knife down on the coffee table before taking the same hand and awkwardly placing it on her back.

"I told you I could help you and I will. Why don't we start now? Although this time why don't we use your dart board instead of my face?" he attempted to joke with her.

She laughed all of a sudden - surprising herself - firstly at that horrendous attempt at humour by Bucky, but then suddenly everything was funny - her whole sorry situation that she had found herself in from the moment she was nearly killed, the fact she was now babysitting the man who would have happily murdered her and her friends weeks ago and the fact that she was sat at home doing nothing because of it all instead of finding the bastard that done this. It was all completely hilarious to her in that moment.

But then the tears came.

And then she was laughing and crying all at once to the point that she was hysterical.

"Uh, Iz?" Bucky removed his hand and lent down to bring himself level with her face, clearly unsure on how to deal with the emotional wreck currently sat in front of him, but it only made her laugh harder through her tears.

"I…was…shot!" she managed to gasp out between fits of hysterical laughter. "And stabbed!" The shock washed over her as the realisation slammed into her over and over again. She was shot. She was stabbed. She was shot. She was stabbed. Over and over it went through her head until she couldn't breathe. Her fits of laughter turned to ones of panic as she grappled with her lungs to allow her to take a deep breath, but she couldn't draw air no matter how hard she tried.

"Shit, Iz. You're having a panic attack." Bucky scooped her up off of the sofa and carried her through to her bedroom, grabbing her phone off of the bed side table as he sat himself against the wall, plonking her down beside him. Fits of laughter still hissed out between her laboured breaths at the very thought that Isabelle Sullivan, the Agent who could untangle any problem in anyone else's head was having a panic attack.

"Hey yeah, Dr Cho its Bucky listen to this." Isabelle could only just distinguish her phone being shoved in front of her face through her tear stained eyes. God only knows how her exasperated attempts at taking in air mixed with the hysterical laughter also emanating from her must have sounded to Helen but it was bad enough for Bucky to put her on speaker as he pulled Isabelle onto his knees, forcing her to straddle and face him.

" _Now, Bucky, speak to her, get her to listen to your voice and focus on it_." through the darkness now blinding her vision she heard Helen speak, she curled forward, exhausted with the effort of staying up straight, the pressure growing in her chest - she could happily be swallowed by the darkness.

But Bucky gripped her wrists tight, refusing to allow her to ball up, forcing her face up in his direction.

"You heard Dr Cho Iz, you're not here alone I'm here with you. Just watch my lips as they move – time your breathing with them, in and out. Its all in your mind Iz, your lungs are more than capable of taking a full breath." He took a deep breath and released it, encouraging her to copy him.

When she wouldn't comply as the dizzying darkness clouding her vision made her fight harder to pull away from him, he dropped her wrists and grabbed her face with both hands, cementing her forehead in place against his own. "Breathe Izzy, breathe. just follow my lead." Through her oxygen deprived tears she forced her mouth to form an 'O' shape and the next time he took in a deep breath she copied.

In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.

Slowly, after what felt like an eternity her breathing began to calm down.

" _Good, good, now when she's ready let go of her and let her take whatever shape is comfortable for her - and keep comforting her! I'll be over soon."_

Isabelle held onto Bucky's arms to support herself as her chest rose and fell in time with his. They stayed like that for a while, Bucky coaxing her to keep breathing with him, not letting her face pull away from his own. As her breathing settled completely and her eyes had begun to clear from the darkness she finally forced herself to look up at him, but his own eyes were shut as his right thumb had absently begun to stroke her cheek. This small intimate movement was enough to bring her round to the reality of her situation.

"Bucky," the word came out as barely more than a whisper but it was enough to stir him, his eyes flew open as he gave her face the once over like he had done earlier. She had never realised how blue his eyes were until now, their noses were barely a centimetre apart and she could feel his warm breath tickling her lips. Those deep blue eyes stared back into her own, searching. What for? She didn't know, but she found herself wanting to be closer to him suddenly - if that was even possible with their current proximity. Catching herself mentally before she did something stupid she admonished herself for the position she was putting herself in. He was under her protection, such thoughts were absurd.

"Bucky." she spoke a little louder this time, he stirred from his mesmerised gaze and pushed their faces apart, looking her up and down once more. When he looked satisfied that she had calmed down he let go of her face, allowing her to crumple forward against his chest. Just as his hands came down to rest on her back she rolled off and away from him, pressing herself against the corner of the room.

"Iz-"

"Go, please Bucky."

"But Dr Cho said-"

"Please Bucky I'm begging you can you just leave, its bad enough I'm in this state never mind with you witnessing it." She closed her eyes and hugged herself, she felt embarrassed to be called an Agent of SHIELD right now - she certainly wasn't acting like one, not only had she just completely embarrassed herself with her hysterics she had also basically drooled like a lovesick puppy all over Bucky. Isabelle didn't do relationships. Oslo had ended any notion she had ever felt for wanting someone by her side, she was more than content to be alone - she didn't need anyone. After what felt like an age she felt movement behind her as he stood up, she sensed him walking to her bed before returning, slowly encompassing her in a warm thick blanket.

"I'll be outside Iz." He squeezed her shoulder before leaving the room, closing the door gently.

She curled up tighter, pulling the blanket over her head as more tears threatened to fall at the very thought of what had just happened.

 _What had just happened to her?!_

 **o.0.o**

A soft knock on the door startled Isabelle from her sleep. Pushing the blanket down off of her body she grabbed around for her phone on the floor beside her to check the time. 4.26pm. She had slept for a little over an hour.

"Who is it?" she called out as she straightened out her clothes and attempted to brush her tousled hair flat with her fingers.

"It's me." Helens voice floated through the door.

 _Oh, shit._ The memory came flooding back of the events of that afternoon, Isabelle cringed at the mere thought.

The door opened slowly as Helen poked her head in. "Mind if I join you?"

"Be my guest." Isabelle signalled to her bed as she flopped back down onto the floor, covering her face with her hands. What had come over her?

"Izzy its completely normal, don't for a second think you're somehow weaker because of it." Helen had ignored her bed completely and settled on the floor beside her.

"You should of seen me Helen I was a state." Isabelle swallowed before carrying on, trying her best to get rid of the lump in her throat. "One minute I was laughing because Bucky said something stupidly funny, then next thing I know the words 'I was shot' and 'I was stabbed' are blinding my vision and my mind and I-I"

"Couldn't control it." Helen finished for her, she peaked through her hands to see Helen's concerned face staring back. "It was always going to happen Izzy, you've never once seen a psychologist after any of your missions, I mean, after the whole situation in Oslo-"

"Lets not talk about Oslo." Isabelle cut her off. She could only deal with one major issue today.

"Well anyway, this was always going to happen. You can sit down and pull apart other peoples situations and help them mend themselves - don't think I didn't hear about what you done for Steve after he was defrosted by the way." Isabelle ignored her pointed stare as best she could. "But you have to start talking to someone, every Agent does it – even Natasha and Clint."

"What?!" Isabelle bolted upright, skeptically staring at Helen. "Natasha and Clint speak to the shrinks?"

"Yes, they speak to _psychologists_ , quite often actually – especially after you were nearly killed. Seeking help isn't a dirty word Isabelle. It's about time you started talking."

Isabelle had been completely taken off guard by the knowledge that Natasha and Clint actually spoke to the shrinks supplied by SHIELD. She always thought they just toughened it out – she thought all Agents did. She had never entertained the idea of talking stuff out with people – she never thought she needed it.

"I suggest you book an appointment with someone soon Izzy, for your own sake – for now it seems your brain has, in its own way accepted what has happened to you which explains the panic attack." Helen stood up, pulling Isabelle up with her and into a tight embrace. "But that doesn't mean you don't seek help in the future, you _will_ need to talk about this with someone, it won't go away."

Another sharp knock once again hit her door announcing Bucky's presence as he warily stuck his head in. She avoided his eyes as he threw the question to the room. "Anyone fancy pizza?"

"No thank you Bucky, I really have to be going it was just a flying visit on my way home, but Izzy could be doing with a decent feed." Helen threw him her trademark bedazzling smile.

He nodded wordlessly before leaving, leaving the door slightly ajar behind him.

"Please don't tell anyone about this Helen." Isabelle pleaded.

"Lucky for you I'm stuck by the code of medical confidentiality." Helen grinned at her before turning serious again. "But I mean it, I expect to see your name in Dr McRoberts appointment book in the near future."

Nodding once Isabelle followed Helen out to see her off at the door. Once she was gone she closed it slowly, resting her head against it as she let the cool surface lower the burning temperature of her face.

"We can pretend it didn't happen – if that's easier for you." She turned to see Bucky perched on top of the kitchen counter, tossing an orange from one hand to the other, looking anywhere but at her.

"Thank you, for what you done Bucky, I don't know what came over me I'm never normally like that it just-"

"Came out of nowhere."

"Wow everyone loves finishing my sentences for me today." She grumbled as she walked over, snatching the orange mid air before beginning to peel it.

"Sorry." He smiled as he carried on. "You don't have to say thank you, I thought I done a lousy job. I panicked and phoned Dr Cho. I had to have her tell me what to do." He picked up another orange and proceeded to toss that one back and forth in place of the one Isabelle was now eating. "I felt completely useless, my experience in comforting people has been a bit slack the last few decades."

"You weren't useless, you did help, in fact you helped a lot." Her words once more barely came out in more than a whisper. He stopped throwing the orange long enough to give her a curt nod before continuing on again. Isabelle finished her orange in silence, content to get some natural sugar into her – she realised once again she hadn't eaten all day.

"What pizza did you order?" she asked, walking to the bin and ditching her orange peels.

"Stupid question." He grinned. "I messaged Steve, he recommended I get us the Meat Feast Deluxe, he said it was your favourite."

"You only ordered one?" she tried to hide the disappointment in her voice.

"Don't be silly Iz, I ordered two." he moved to say something else when the doorbell went. Setting the orange carefully back in the fruit bowl he hopped off of the counter, grabbed the money that was sat on the side and headed for the door. "I'll grab the pizza, you can get the beer."

With pizza to look forward to Isabelle walked over to the fridge and grabbed two bottles of beer, taking them over to the sofa as she loaded up Netflix.

By the time Bucky had come back she had settled on continuing with her binge of watching of Full House. Joining her, he handed one of the large pizza boxes to her before opening his own. Once he was content with a slice firmly in his hands he looked up at the television as the title sequence finished and a young John Stamos playing the loveable rogue Jesse Katsopolis flashed up on the screen, running around the Tanner household calling out for his niece, Michelle.

"What is this?" Bucky questioned, his confusion and revulsion shown clearly on his face.

"Just every young girl's first male crush back in the nineties." Isabelle winked at him as he continued to stare.

"Really? Him? But his style is so… messy?" Bucky scrunched up his nose as if trying to comprehend what women saw in him.

"Oh, have mercy!" Isabelle called out in her best imitation of Jesse. She descended into a fit of laughter as Bucky rolled his eyes before shovelling more pizza into his mouth.

"It's times like these I miss the Forties." he grumbled.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:**

 **I know its a little later than normal but here is Chapter 5, enjoy, and as usual feel free to review, favourite and follow!**

 **~Ladieesailor**

* * *

 _ **CHAPTER 5**_

 _ **.*.**_

 _"What she didn't expect to happen next was for Steve and Tony to come bursting through her front door."_

 _ **.*.**_

 _Everywhere you look, everywhere you go, there's a heart, a hand to hold onto!_

Bucky inhaled a sharp breath, lunging forward as the thrum of the opening credits from the show Iz had forced him to watch jolted him awake. He had seemingly begun to nod off despite his best efforts. Not long after stuffing their faces, they both wordlessly made themselves comfortable on the sofa, Iz had slowly descended into her sleep and Bucky hadn't been long behind her until the music had awoken him. Just as well, as he had struggled - yet succeeded - in remaining awake for the past three nights, preferring the sleep deprivation to the unthinkable alternative of a nightmare. Rubbing his eyes with one hand, he took his phone out of his pocket with the other and checked the time - it had just gone 9pm. Relieved, he let his body fall back against the back of the sofa. The last time he had checked his phone it was just after 8.30pm, so even if he had drifted off it couldn't of been for long.

Glancing up across the room, he couldn't help but smile at Iz's small form on the other end of the large 'L' shaped sofa. He didn't think it was possible for someone to physically become part of the furniture and yet she had managed to completely embed herself into the corner of it, cocooned in the blanket she had wrapped around herself earlier. He noted that she looked completely peaceful in her slumber - an emotion he hadn't seen on her face before. The knitted eyebrows, the odd bite of her lip, the turned down frown when she appeared to be thinking of a possible solution to all of their impossible problems – all those expressions were gone, and in her sleep she looked completely at ease. He couldn't lie to himself, when she had begun to freak out earlier he was completely at a loss as to what he should do. The first thing that came to mind was to get her away from the knives and get help. He knew if he contacted Steve she would flip, which left him with one option - Dr Cho, who had appeared close to Iz before at Stark Tower and she was his only option.

It was only when Iz had calmed down from her panic attack and they were sitting there so comfortably in close proximity, that he allowed himself a minute to enjoy the human touch – to have someone so close. He hadn't felt a close connection with another human being in decades, even now, when Steve would clasp his shoulder or briefly hug him he would freeze, uncomfortable with the touch. And yet with Iz it almost felt natural, he didn't hesitate to hold her close when he needed too to help her. It was only when she spoke his name so softly - he almost believed he had imagined it - that he realised he was stroking her cheek with his thumb, their foreheads touching, his mouth so close to hers. He felt foolish, she had just had a panic attack and all he could think about was that it had been a long time since he had felt human contact like that - to almost feel wanted and needed as she gripped onto his arms so tightly as if her life depended on it. He was only used to people fighting against his grip as they screamed for mercy.

He glanced down at his phone once more - Tony had given him one, claiming that it was how they all kept in contact with one another, but he knew fine well that there was a high chance that a tracking chip and a hundred other things that enabled the Avengers to keep a close eye on him were disguised in the modern day contraption. But he didn't mind all of that, not when he had nothing to hide, and plus, it also enabled him to keep in contact with Steve. He had debated all evening on whether he should make Steve aware of what had happened to Iz, what with her mentors not being there he felt someone should know, someone who could do a better job of helping her in the future. Making his mind up on the spot he carefully typed out a message, and within seconds he had a reply.

 _It was always going to happen. She's a tough one, but even the tough ones can't hold it together forever._ Bucky smiled as he read the message, Steve hadn't changed at all in nearly seventy years.

His phone vibrated in his hand, Steve's caller ID flashing at him on the screen. Getting up, he creeped down the hall and into his room, shutting the door carefully behind him and accepting the call.

"A bit of pre-warning would have been nice, Iz is asleep _._ " He hissed down the phone.

" _Hey to you too."_ Bucky could envision the smile on Steve's face as he spoke. " _Dr Cho debriefed us on what happened, she commended you for the way you got her to calm down."_

Bucky was silent for a moment, he had overheard the conversation between Iz and Dr Cho, with the latter promising not to tell anyone what had happened. As if reading him, Steve carried on. " _I learned pretty quickly there's no such thing as medical confidentiality within SHIELD or the Avengers, if Izzy can't cope we have to know, although thankfully her little hiccup today in her recovery will work in her favour. She needed to get all that pent up emotion out of her system or it would have eaten at her."_

Bucky found himself feeling strangely protective of Iz, almost infuriated that Dr Cho had lied to her and went straight to the Avengers about her panic attack. But then, that would be preposterous, so he buried the sharp words that were forming on his tongue and decided to change the subject.

"Any more updates on Sokolov we need to know about?" he queried.

" _Nothing more as of yet although Nat and Clint are expected to make contact any day now."_

Bucky was itching to get out of the apartment, any lead at all would at least enable him and Izzy to take a small venture outside where he could stop feeling like a caged animal.

" _Anyway._ " Steves voice rang in his ear. " _Less about everyone else, how you holding up Buck? Are you sleeping at all?_ "

"I think its better for everyone in this apartment block if I don't sleep." He replied grimly.

" _If its Izzy your worried about, don't. She's dealt with a lot worse. You can't evade sleep forever Bucky, just try and get some sleep tonight – if it doesn't work out I'll force Fury to let you both return here._ "

It wasn't Iz that he was worried about. It was the chance of him slipping back into the mind of the Winter Soldier again, with each new nightmare he could feel the pull of his darker side getting stronger. He was worried that one night he would fall asleep as Bucky and become trapped once again. But Steve was right, his body was struggling and he wasn't going to make it through another night with no sleep.

"Yeah, your right. Speaking of, I think I'm going to head to bed now. Just stay close to your phone Steve."

" _I always do._ "

The phone line clicked at the other end, signalling to Bucky that the call was ended. Sighing, he left his phone on the bedside table before wandering back into the living room. Iz hadn't moved a single inch since he had been gone, gently he shook her shoulder, not wanting to scare her, but she only let out a massive sigh before rolling over and away from him. She clearly needed sleep just as much as him. Carefully, he scooped her up into his arms, her small form fit perfectly against him as he carried her through to her room and placed her down on the bed, still wrapped up in her blanket. She let out another deep breath as she subconsciously curled back up into a ball, Bucky caught himself smiling once more and admonished himself. It was neither the time nor place, and to say Bucky was rusty on the etiquette of dealing with women was an understatement. He could only put it down to the fact that they were cooped up in the apartment together, all of these weird feelings and amusements would soon come to pass. He wandered back into his own room, removing his top before climbing into bed and turning off his lights.

"Well, lets give this a go." He muttered to himself. No sooner had the words left his mouth than he was already slipping into a dreamless state. Or so he thought.

 **o.0.o**

" _Comply." The hooded man that stood before Bucky slammed another well-placed punch into his right kidney, causing him once more to buckle forward in pain – the only thing stopping him from crying out was his own gritted teeth. This stranger had him strung up by his arms – his toes barely scraping the ground – and had been beating him for hours, simply stating this one word. Comply._

" _No." he hissed between his teeth, spitting out the blood that had been forming in his mouth._

" _The Red Book and its knowledge may be lost, Sergeant Barnes, but we have other ways to persuade you." A faceless grin peaked out from underneath the hood as he clicked his fingers - a door off to the right of them slowly opened._

 _Bucky knew he could outlast this man and his punches, no matter how painful. He had been trained for it – as the Winter Soldier of course – but he knew his body could endure it. He couldn't go back to being the Winter Soldier - he couldn't hurt people the way he had been - but most importantly, he couldn't lose himself again. So he would endure the pain._

 _Just as he ascertained his mindset and prepared for the next elevated step of interrogation, two cloaked figures suddenly appeared through the door that had opened moments before, carrying a limp body between them._

 _His blood turned cold. Anybody could wear the suit that the limp body was wearing, but no one else but him could own the shield that was carried in behind him._

 _Steve._

" _No." his voice stammered. "It's not possible."_

" _Oh but it is Sergeant Barnes, I have thee Captain America within my grasp!" the hooded man approached Steve's limp body - which was now supported between the two hooded figures that had dragged him in, right in front of Bucky - and pulled his head up, showing his bruised and swollen face to the room. "So let's try this again, either you comply and tell me the contents of the Red Book, or America loses their famed, darling hero!"_

 _Bucky's resolve was weakening, Steve would of course understand if he refused to divulge what little he knew from the Red Book. It kept a lot of people safe. But it was Steve, his best friend, his saviour from his life as the Winter Soldier. If he succumbed to the hooded man and gave him what he wanted he could break the hold on himself again. The Avengers would stop who ever this mad man was and they would either make Bucky snap out of his brainwashed state or kill him. If he could save Steve…_

" _Bucky…don't." the words that left Steve's lips were barely more than a whisper - as if he knew what Bucky was thinking. But it was enough to snap him out of his crazy thoughts._

" _Go to hell." He spat in the direction of the hooded man, who in turn, as if anticipating this answer slammed his fist into Steve's face, rendering him completely unconscious._

 _Bucky pulled against his restraints as he lunged forward, roaring obscenities at the hooded man. He yanked, harder and harder - he swore he could feel the concrete above him give a little. Ignoring the maniac laughs around him he kept yanking, screaming as the chains cut into his wrists, but he didn't care. Only he could get himself and Steve out of this situation. If he didn't escape now, Steve would die._

" _Oh Sergeant Barnes!" The hooded figure called out in a sing song voice, capturing his attention. He ceased the yanking of his chains and looked up._

 _Before him stood Agent Sullivan – Iz. And behind her stood the hooded man with one of her own knives against her neck, her teeth gritted in a soundless pain. Looking down, he was horrified to see the cause of that pain. Just below her waist, one of her own small throwing daggers was lodged in the top of her thigh, keeping her immobilised against the man. Her eyes shimmered with pain, but when they met his it was like an unspoken language transpired between them._

 _She was willing to die to prevent another person falling victim to the Winter Soldier._

 _It should be easy for him to ignore this, he barely knew the woman held before him, and yet there was a tug against his heart, a tug that wanted to make sure no harm came to her. His chest was already flaring with rage at the fact they had already caused her pain._

" _Comply, Sergeant Barnes." The knife was dug in deeper against her neck, causing a thin line of blood to appear, but it barely registered in her eyes as they stayed locked with Bucky's, begging him not to._

" _Get fucked." came his answer, although he soon regretted it._

 _Her proud smile only lasted a mere second before the hooded man, screaming in anger, grabbed her by the hair and threw her against the wall behind Bucky with such force that a slight dent had appeared in the concrete where her torso had connected - she crumpled to the floor on the spot. He strained desperately to look round at her limp body - her chest wasn't rising._

" _NO!" he roared once more. He threw his body forward, again and again as he screamed until he felt the concrete above him give way and he collapsed forward onto his knee's. Rolling over instinctively he positioned himself better to deal with anyone coming towards him, but when he looked up the room was empty, the door that was off to the right was closed once more. No Steve, no Iz and no hooded man with his hooded goons. Undoing the chains from his wrists he ran at the door, grabbing the door handle and ripping the door from its hinges. The hall before him was poorly lit but he could see the hooded figure running away. He was upon him within seconds, it didn't take much to have him pinned up against the wall, gasping for breath._

" _Leave them alone_ , t _hey have nothing to do with the Winter Soldier, they are innocent." He growled, raising his metal arm as he intended to end the life before him. But he was stopped by an unknown force, his body went rigid as he felt a sharp stab in his ribs. Collapsing backwards, the last thing he saw was the hooded figure standing over him, cackling as he taunted him. "Until next time, Sergeant Barnes."_

 **o.0.o**

A long, gut wrenching scream filled the quiet night air, startling Isabelle from her dreamless sleep. Falling back on her natural instinct she was on her feet with a knife in her hand within a matter of seconds. It was Bucky, and she would happily bet that he was in the throws of one of his infamous nightmares. She looked to her bedside table. _Shit!_ She thought to herself, the darts were still on the kitchen counter. Wasting no time, she ripped her bedroom door open and ran to the kitchen just as another scream filled the air, accompanied by a loud crash as the door leading into Bucky's room was ripped off of its hinges and thrown back. Within a matter of seconds Bucky was upon her, but not before she grabbed the little black box.

"Bucky wai-" her words were cut off as he grabbed her by the throat and shoved her up against the wall, bringing his face mere inches from her own. As her eyes focused on his she was met with only unfamiliarity and anger, completely void of any emotion that was there only hours before. Now she understood what Steve meant when he spoke about his pain of not being recognised by his best friend – it almost crushed her hope of getting out of the situation.

"Leave them alone." The words came out of Bucky's mouth in a low growl. "They have nothing to do with The Winter Soldier, they are innocent." As if to make his point he pulled her closer and then smashed her back up against the wall even harder than the first time. Through the haze now clouding her vision thanks to the lack of oxygen from his choke hold - she remembered the box. With one slick, small movement she removed a dart and jabbed it between his fourth and fifth rib on his right side, within seconds his grip loosened as he collapsed to the floor, completely unconscious. She sucked in the air as she collapsed forward beside him, holding her neck where the grip of his hand still burned.

What she didn't expect to happen next was for Steve and Tony to come bursting through her front door.

"Hey, Izzy, are you okay?" Steve rushed over to her, but she waved him off as she pushed herself back and slumped against the wall that she had been pinned against moments before.

Tony had gone straight to Bucky, giving him a quick check before nodding to Steve. "He's completely out, I say we got just less than an hour."

Isabelle watched as the pair of them set about pulling Bucky up onto one of her dining table chairs, before Tony pulled out a mean set of handcuffs.

"What are they for?" Isabelle's voice broke as her throat slowly un-crushed itself from Bucky's grip.

"Designed specifically for good ol' Bucky here, once he's in them, he can't get out of them until we know he's safe again." Tony, a little too happily, pinned Bucky's limp arms around the back of the chair and clicked the handcuffs on.

Now the shock had settled and her breathing had returned to normal she focused on the real issue in the room.

"So, want to tell me how many camera's there are or do I have to go around smashing them myself?" she pushed herself up off the ground, slightly regretting it as the lightheadness returned, but she stood her ground.

"There's only one, directly above Bucky's bed." Steve glanced at Tony who continued.

"And before you start getting all upset saying that we undermined you by setting up a camera that alerted Jarvis to any high pitched noise or insane body heat and that we didn't trust you to deal with the situation yourself then I just want to save an argument and completely disagree with you." Tony pulled out his phone and replayed clear images of Bucky slowly descending into a nightmare before giving a pointed glance at Steve. "El Cappo over there only decided to inform me yesterday that our delightful new Hulk hasn't been sleeping a wink for fear of causing damage," he stepped closer with the phone so Isabelle could see very clearly the moment Bucky's eyes adjusted into nothingness as he screamed that gut wrenching scream that had awoken her.

"So, I activated the camera in his room and sure enough-" he turned and rather flamboyantly indicated to Bucky. "We had another Hulk moment. Now obviously I understand you completely dealt with that situation alone, but you got to understand Iz." Tony walked back over to her now, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving it a tight squeeze. "Although it doesn't seem like it I care about your welfare, it was better for everyone if-"

Without thinking she brought her fist up and connected it, hard, with his left cheekbone.

"Ow, shit! Izzy what did you do that for?!" Tony proclaimed as he steadied himself against the kitchen counter top, holding his jaw in his hand.

"You kind of deserved that." Steve shrugged over at him, winking at Isabelle as she walked past them both.

"Yeah, I know." Tony murmured.

Walking away from them she grabbed her knife that she had dropped on the floor when Bucky had lunged for her, and walked into Bucky's room.

 _Son of a Bitch!_ She thought to herself as she spied the tiny micro camera, barely visible to the naked eye. Using her good arm she sent the knife spinning at the ceiling, landing it with a resounding thud on the camera, destroying it whole. Satisfied, she returned to the living room, beaming at them both. Tony had sourced a bag of peas to hold against his swollen cheek, Isabelle was happy to find her fist didn't hurt one bit, even if it did - it would have been worth it.

"If I need you next time, I'll call." She signalled to Bucky's prone form. "I took care of him, not everyone in this world needs the Avengers for every tiny problem they face."

Steve walked towards her. "Look Iz, we're sorry we were just worried-"

She held her hand up, cutting him off. "Worried or not you broke the terms of our agreement and my privacy. I nearly get killed once and now suddenly no one thinks I'm capable of being an Agent?" she glared at them both, who smartly avoided her eyes.

Just as she went to launch into a lecture on exactly how much they had pissed her off a low groan caused them all to turn to see Bucky slowly stirring.

"Shit, too soon." Steve rushed over to him, placing a hand on Bucky's shoulder before turning to Tony. "That stuff kept him out for five minutes max what the heck?"

Isabelle picked the dart up off the floor to see that more than half the liquid still remained.

"Next time, try a downward motion on a fattier body part and leave it in." Tony grumbled as he dropped the bag of peas and snatched the dart from her hand, moving towards Bucky. Just as Isabelle opened her mouth to protest Tony darting him again Bucky's head rolled back, his eyes fluttering, fighting the tiredness, before looking up at the three of them.

"What damage did I do this time?" his eyes flitted between them before settling on hers. She went to cover her neck but it was too late. "Did I do that to you?" she could see the pain in his eye's, the disappointment in himself.

"Clearly it's Bucky we are talking too here so how about we take your fancy cuffs off of him?" she cocked her eyebrow at Tony.

"Ah Ah, not until he answers the question." Tony waggled a finger at her before bringing it to his lips, signalling for her to be quiet.

Steve walked around in front of Bucky, levelling himself with him. "What was my Mom's name."

Bucky chuckled. "You really need to start asking a different question." His smile seemed to set Tony and Steve at ease. "But your Mom's name was Sarah, she's buried next to your Dad and she had a fondness for clipping me around the ear when I was younger for no good reason at all."

The handcuffs beeped and fell off, releasing Bucky from the chair.

"Oh, there was always a reason." Steve smiled as he took Bucky's hand and pulled him back on his feet.

"Well, whilst you three catch up and clear up this mess," Isabelle signalled around her and to Bucky's room. "I'm going back to sleep. If you Avengers could give me a day completely free of drama that would be great, thanks." She ignored the three of them as they all moved to speak to her, but a quick flash of her palm - signalling for them not to come any closer to her - stopped them all in their tracks. "I'm okay, but if you don't remove absolutely every little gadget from this apartment and clean the damage before I wake up I'll send Bucky back to you and then he can smash up your Gin collection next." she aimed that last remark at Tony.

Without giving any of them a chance to reply she stalked down the hall and into her bedroom, closing the door behind her and falling back against it.

She was not okay.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

 ** _.*._**

 _"Jesus Iz how much have you had to drink?"_

 ** _.*._**

Isabelle curled up against the back of her bedroom door as she listened to the three of them - Tony, Bucky and Steve - bustling around the apartment, presumably doing as they were told and cleaning their mess up. Placing her head in her hands she took slow, deep breaths in a lame attempt to avoid a repeat of her panic attack from earlier.

The whole situation had happened so fast that it hadn't hit her until her door was shut that she was within seconds of being killed by Bucky. She wasn't afraid to admit to herself that he had terrified her, especially when he looked at her with no recognition of who she was - but she wouldn't admit that to Steve and Tony. When you know someone – or rather they know you – there is always that glint of recognition in the corner of their eye, one you can play on if you need to to get yourself out of a bad situation. With Bucky in the throws of a nightmare, that safety net was out of the window and if it wasn't for those darts she would have been quite easily dead. The thought of those cold, dead eyes being the last thing she saw sent a tight pang across her chest. Who was she to Bucky anyway? Even if he had some control could he have stopped? As far as she was concerned she was just a glorified babysitter who so far, had actually caused more bother than him.

Events at her apartment - whilst it acted as a safe house - had played out a lot more differently than how Isabelle had imagined. She expected to be working on her arm strength and getting it back to being as perfect as humanly possible, to be working on a plan to track down Sokolov and then to back up that plan with some reconnaissance - not having emotional breakdowns and being attacked by an ex brainwashed murderer who turns into his inner demon every time he falls asleep. She still didn't know what to make of the situation she found herself in with Bucky when he was helping her through her panic attack. He had been so gentle with her - she would be making a liar of herself if she said she hadn't felt anything as he held her face so close to his own, cradling and stroking her cheek as he too looked completely content with their proximity. But her self restraint kicked in, she had to push away from him because she was in no state to go down that path again. She didn't do dating anymore, in fact she hadn't even looked at a man in that way for nearly two years, not since Mason.

She swallowed hard as his name danced around in her head, teasing her, _torturing her_. Nothing she had ever endured in her life could ever compare to the pain and suffering he had caused her - even being shot and stabbed in the shoulder was minuscule in comparison. He had taken so much from her - he nearly succeeded in destroying her completely – but Steve, Natasha and Clint clawed her back from the path of destruction that she had set herself on after Oslo.

 _"Oslo_." She whispered aloud.

Even the word tasted bitter in her mouth. Mason and Oslo took everything from her. In fact, everything that had happened in the last fours days paled in comparison. She wiped away the single tear that travelled down her cheek, followed by another and another.

It was all too much - a sharp, shooting pain grew in the middle of her chest as the memories engulfed her. She needed to numb her mind, she needed to make it all go away.

Controlling herself, she listened intently to the other side of the door. She could only hear complete silence, which meant that for the time being, for whatever reason, they were gone. Isabelle viewed that as a positive for herself though, as there was something she needed, something she hadn't craved in a while, and it was best if no one was around to see her retrieve it.

She listened for a little while longer, when she was satisfied that her path would be clear she stood up, opened her door and creeped out. As she peeked around the hall she was met with a strong sense of emptiness. Breathing a sigh of relief she tip toed over to the top right cabinet in her kitchen - the place for her naughty stash - and opened it, only to be met with two empty shelves.

"Looking for this?" a quiet voice called out from behind.

Isabelle spun on her toes to find Steve leaning against the wall, her last bottle of Whiskey clasped in his hands.

"Where's Bucky and Tony?" she asked, glancing down at the bottle.

"They'll be back soon, they've gone to source a new door and bed for your spare room since Bucky trashed your previous ones." He spoke like it was a joke, but the joke didn't reach his eyes. Looking down at the bottle and back up at her he spoke with an unusual caution. "Izzy, don't do this."

"Do what?" she crossed her arms and lent back against the counter, avoiding his eye line. No one was supposed to be around, now that Steve was here it made things difficult.

"You've done so well since last time, this isn't the ans-"

"Oh, right because you would know wouldn't you? The almighty Captain America has the answer for everything." She snapped.

The pain in her chest had risen, she could feel her blood boiling as a dull ringing in her ears caused her anger to build with a sudden, unannounced rage inside of her. She was always helping everyone, always. So what if her version of self help and dulling painful memories was a few drinks? The dad lecture from Steve was getting old and not what she needed right now. The quicker she got him out of her apartment, the better.

"Just because you choose to act like your life is all perfect, despite the fact that your one shot at happiness was left in the 1940's along with the world you knew doesn't mean I always have to be at your high standard!" Her voice cracked as she aimed her venomous words at him, but she refused to cry. A little voice in the back of her mind told her to stop, that she would regret saying these things to him, that her repulsive attack against a true friend was appalling, but she told that side of her brain to shut the hell up. She was done being the woman that pretended everything was okay.

"I mean look at your life Steve, you lost Peggy, you lost your friends, you awoke in a life that wasn't your own where people expect you to save a shitty human race that's frankly not worth saving. I mean, to top it all off your best friend comes back as the next crazy dude that's trying to kill you and even then you don't break! You act like its all okay when its not. Not everyone is perfect like you Steve, not everyone can hold their lives together like you. Some of us are just normal humans, some of us just need a damn drink from time to time."

"But you don't just drink, do you Izzy?" his face remained unchanged, if she had hurt his feelings he didn't show it which just infuriated her even more - she wanted the fight. "After Oslo you took yourself to a dark place, and the drinking nearly killed you. I promised myself I wouldn't let that happen again." He walked over to her slowly, uncapping the Whiskey. "Regardless of how much of an ass your being right now, I'm still keeping that promise."

He upturned the bottle in the sink, Isabelle could only watch as the last of the bottle drained away, the fumes hit her nostrils hard, her cravings enveloped her.

"Screw you, screw the Avenger's and screw SHIELD." She growled in his ear before turning away to return to her room. She could easily source some more.

"Izzy wait." He grabbed her arm and pulled her back to face him, without thinking she brought her hand up and slapped him, hard. Of course, a meagre slap from her puny human hand would barely have squashed a hair on his chin, but it sent shock waves through his eyes. He shoved her away, his fury evident in his stance.

"You want to ruin your life again Izzy? You want to drink yourself underneath the table, you want to ruin your career as an Agent? Be my guest. Oslo is not worth it. The memory of him is not worth it. But no matter how much I tell you that, you won't listen. Fine, learn the hard way again, but I'm taking Bucky with me and I'm telling Fury. If you won't let us help you then I'll force the help on you." He stepped closer, bringing his face inches from her own. "I won't watch you destroy your life again, and you can bet Natasha and Clint won't let you either."

"Steve?" Isabelle turned her head to see that Bucky had appeared at the door, his mouth gaped slightly as he looked between them. Tony appeared slowly behind him, an unreadable expression on his face as he squeezed passed Bucky to get into the room.

"Last chance Izzy, let us help you the right way or this is going to get messy." she turned back to see that Steve hadn't moved an inch and had remained entirely focused on her.

Her cheeks burned as she felt all three sets of eyes on her, and all three sets she candidly avoided. Tony stepped further into the room, approaching them both slowly as if he were walking towards an unexploded bomb. Which to be fair right now - that was the best way to describe her.

"Steve, we got a problem?" Tony asked as he drew level with them, but he was ignored as Steve continued to keep his burning, furious gaze on her.

"Agent Sullivan?" Tony rounded his attention on her, but she could only bring herself to focus on a small stain embedded into his tie. All she had done was cause havoc, she knew deep down the Whiskey was a bad idea, but she needed to forget, she needed to dull the pain.

"She's not an Agent right now." Steve snapped over at him, Isabelle felt a weight lift as his gaze moved from her. "We were right, she should not have been left with Bucky, I could see it in her eyes when we first walked in, all of this is sending her back down the slippery slope of alcoholism."

Isabelle ignored Tony's sharp intake of breath, instead she brought her gaze up to meet Steve's, hoping that it conveyed her anger. After all she had done for him, after the dedication she had shown in helping him to get back on his feet again after being woken up - this was how he re-payed her? He couldn't give her a break just once.

"So, what's it gonna be Izzy?" Steve stepped closer once more. The thought of punching him in the face crossed her mind again but common sense prevailed. More so for the fact she liked her hand intact.

"Don't do this to yourself Iz." The words came out of Tony's mouth in a gravelled whisper. She glanced over at him, slightly shocked, as she had never seen him speak with such quiet concern before, she knew they were only looking out for her and that she should be grateful. But she couldn't do this anymore. There was only one thing she wanted right now and Steve wouldn't let her have it. After the last few days that she had had, she craved the burn of the spirit down her throat, beer just wasn't cutting it anymore.

"Go to hell." She hissed as she turned away from them both, wiping a fresh tear that she hoped they didn't see.

"Iz, if this is about Oslo-" Tony began but she cut him off.

"It's about everything!" she let her voice rise with her anger. "It's about the fact that every time I'm involved with the Avenger's someone always dies. It happened in Oslo, it nearly happened the other night in the bar and it definitely nearly happened right here in my own apartment. You guys have that little trust in me that you set a camera up in my own spare bedroom!" She turned to Steve. "You want to go to Fury then go, you want to be the hero again and try and save me? Crack on. But for now, leave me the hell alone." The little voice popped up in her mind again, lambasting her for how she was treating her co-workers, her friends. But she was done holding herself together. Maybe Helen was right, she should have talked Oslo out with someone, she should have got her shit together, but right now she was happy for her life to spiral out of control, what did she have to live for? The universe seemed hell bent on destroying her life piece by piece, so why shouldn't she just enjoy the ride? Without another word she grabbed her jacket and purse from the dining table and pushed passed Tony and Steve, who thankfully didn't stop her. Bucky however had other ideas.

"Get out of the way Bucky." She crossed her arms and stared him out as he blocked her access to the front door.

At first she thought he was going to argue, he had been strangely quiet the whole time, but instead, after one glance behind her - presumably at Steve - he stood to one side, leaving her to go free. She avoided his eyes as she walked passed him, he went to speak but she quickly yanked the door closed behind her. There was only one place she wanted to be right now.

 **o.0.o**

"What the hell was that about?" Tony rounded on Steve, thunderous accusations radiated from his concerned expression.

Steve turned and walked towards the dining table, sitting himself down as he rubbed his temple with his thumb and forefinger. He partially felt ashamed at what he had said to Izzy - threatening to have her fired and to force help on her, but he couldn't see any other way. He had to admit to himself that her words had riled him up, despite the fact he knew they were just that. Words. Ones he knew that she would deeply regret, and ones he knew he would easily forgive her for. Like he did last time. She had done so much for him, he felt obliged to return the favour. He let his anger get the better of him and now she was out on the streets of New York in a worse state than before. Why didn't he let her have a drink and monitor her from afar? Maybe she would have stopped at one, but then again, maybe not.

She was never the same after Oslo, they only knew the little that she shared, but not enough to piece together what fully happened. They knew there was a mission in Oslo, they knew Izzy had fallen for someone, and they knew that the mission ended with her twin brothers dead and Izzy being inconsolable for months, relying on alcohol to get her through the days. There were many nights he spent sat at the edge of her bed, rubbing her back as she cried in her sleep, calling out the names of her lost brothers, lambasting herself for causing their death. Even Natasha refused to talk about it, when him and Tony approached her to gain some kind of understanding she refused, only stating that it was the most satisfying kill of her career and that Izzy was not to be asked about it ever again. He didn't want her to fall back into her old habits again, not when she had been doing so well.

"I guess she's still not over it?" Tony sat down beside him, moving to speak again but he was interrupted by Bucky, who had soundlessly moved before them.

"Does anyone want to tell me whats going on?" Steve looked up to see Bucky's eyebrows raised with a hint of concern. Izzy's current mental state wasn't the only concern Steve had about Bucky being here so close in proximity to her, but they could wait until they sorted her out before that issue was tackled.

"Izzy went through a lot of shit a couple of years back, its not really our place to tell you the story Buck."

"Steve, we have to do something, we can't let her fall on her ass again." Tony picked at a chip in the table, his face absent of expression, which meant he was deeply, deeply concerned. "More importantly I don't want my ass kicked by Miss Romanoff if she returns to find Izzy completely broken and we had done nothing to prevent it."

"But what can we do?" Steve threw his hands up in exasperation. "Do we lock her up and throw away the key until its all over? Do we let her drink herself into the gutter?"

"Well, we could do that," Tony looked thoughtful for a second, moving to explain himself as Steve raised his eyebrows. "Y'know, let her blow off a little bit of steam, let her have a couple of nights to drink away the pain, to numb herself. Heck if she wants to do knife practice on us to get her anger out I'm game." Tony's smile barely reached his eyes as he glanced between Steve and Bucky. Steve wondered if this was a glimpse of the Tony that Pepper saw. "She's been through a lot Steve, I know you're protective of her, but sometimes it's just easier to let us humans have a good blow out with a bottle of something." He clapped Steve on the back. "Plus, we both know drunk Izzy will talk sense into sober Izzy."

Steve smiled at that comment, mainly because it was true. The last time they had seen Izzy drunk she had spent a good thirty minutes apologising to her own reflection in a mirror that she had knocked over.

"Your right, I should go find her, get her back here." He made to stand up but Tony shot up out of his seat and stopped him.

"I don't think you're the right person to speak to her right now, especially after that blazing argument you guys just had and that impeccable slap she landed on you."

"How did you-"

"What, you think I didn't sense that something wasn't right when she ran away to her room earlier?" he walked to the kitchen island counter and removed a minuscule mic from underneath. "Me and Bucky probably would have been back earlier if I hadn't heard the argument, I decided to let it play out." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"You know, maybe you guys should stop spying on her. Maybe she has issues with you all because of stuff like this." There was no mistaking the icy tone in Bucky's voice as he spoke.

"Buck, its not intentional, we just wanted to look out for her." Steve stood and approached his old friend, but Bucky stepped back, glancing between him and Tony.

"Yeah well, between myself and this crazy Russian dude she's nearly been killed twice in the last four days, maybe give her a little benefit of the doubt that if she isn't handling things she at least knows how to handle herself. There's no need for all this monitoring." Steve glanced down at Bucky's balled fists, his slow burning fury was evident.

"Oh my, Steve, has old Bucky fallen in love so quickly?" Tony chuckled as he made little heart shapes with his fingers.

Bucky lunged for Tony in a split second but Steve, still looking at Bucky's fists caught the movement and flung himself between them just in time. "Now is not the time to be fighting guys, alright?" He pushed Bucky back before he gave Tony a sharp punch to the arm, snapping him out of his teasing and pointed at him. "Enough."

After a tense few moments Bucky spoke. "Your right, sorry, I can remain a bit sensitive after one of my uh... turns."

"I'll say." Tony muttered, Steve punched him once more and gave him his 'not helping' stare.

"How about we brainstorm on how we are going to help Iz before the Terrible Two return from their mission and find their prized student broken." Tony raised his eyebrows at them both as he rubbed his arm. "And stop punching me, I know its hard to believe but out of the suit it fu-"

"I'll go after her, she seems pissed off with me the least out of the three of us." Bucky cut Tony off at the right moment, before Steve punched him again for bad language.

"Buck, you haven't seen her like this before, it can get bad. If we don't help her now she could hit rock bottom and never come back up again." Steve warned him.

"I think between the three of us we have all experienced that." Bucky spoke quietly. "But myself more recently, so let me go after her."

Bucky going after her made sense to Steve, for one, Bucky was neither Tony or himself, and two Steve had bore witness to the fact that there was something growing between Izzy and Buck, something that he didn't think either was aware of yet - he hoped.

"Yeah, your right Buck." Steve sighed, the whole situation was giving him a piercing headache. "She'll be in a bar down the street called Happy Joe's, but be careful, she has an acid tongue when she's defensive. "

"Got it." Bucky nodded at them both once before grabbing his jacket and heading out the door, closing it gently behind him.

"You're really going to let him be the one to deal with her when she is like this?" Tony flicked his hands up in a 'what the hell' motion.

"If Bucky can handle Hydra for 60 plus years he can handle Izzy." Signalling around the room he gave Tony a pointed stare. "Remove everything, all the cameras, all the mics, Bucky is right - we should be giving her the benefit of the doubt."

"That's all fair and well Steve, but we've both seen the recordings, we've both listened in. It was quick thinking telling Bucky that Dr Cho told us about her panic attack and not admitting that we sat and watched the whole thing." He brought himself face to face with Steve. "That dirt bag Mason nearly destroyed her, we've both seen the chemistry between her and Bucky even if they don't know it themselves. Do you really think its wise that we leave her in a situation where they could go further, to put her in a situation where she could be destroyed once again if Bucky was ever turned back into the Winter Soldier? Do you think she could cope with him not recognising her? It nearly broke you Steve, you nearly let yourself die at his hand because of it, are we really going to put her through that? I say we remove him now before this goes any-"

"Like I said." Steve cut him off. "Lets give her the benefit of the doubt. Remove it all."

Tony, surprisingly for once stopped arguing. "Fine, but if it all goes wrong its on your shoulders."

"Isn't it always." Steve muttered.

 **o.0.o**

The whiskey went down smoothly, so smoothly that Isabelle managed to have six of them within 15 minutes of arriving at her favourite bar - Happy Joe's. The second Isabelle had left the apartment she had instantly regretted how she had spoken to Steve, it was almost like walking out of the apartment had made her snap out of some crazy trance. She should have gone back in and apologised, but the craving for a neat whiskey won. So here she was, perched on a bar stool that she hadn't occupied in months, sinking whiskey's like they were going out of fashion.

"Alright darling, needing a top up?" she turned to see an older man had plopped himself onto the stool beside her. Sober Isabelle would have gone on high alert in an instant and be thumbing the switchblade in her pocket - which she had coincidentally forgotten in her rush to leave the apartment - but drunk Isabelle burst out laughing at the ridiculous cowboy hat that he was wearing.

"Wooooooah Cowboy!" she hooted, slamming her arm down on the bar. "Just what I need right now - Woody. Any chance you've got an astronaut hiding behind you too that answers to Buzz? And some talking potatoes?" she cocked her eyebrow at the man who only looked confused in return. "Well, I guess that joke fell short." she snorted into her drink as she took another gulp, finishing it off. "Barman?" she raised the empty glass in the air. She didn't have to worry about being cut off as Joe, the owner, was always desperate for business and rarely turned away a happy paying customer. Taking her glass, the barman poured her another double before placing it back in her outstretched, waiting hand.

"Allow me ma'am." the cowboy dug his hand into his pocket and produced a twenty dollar bill just as she reached for her purse to find money, chucking it at the barman he held up two fingers. "Make that two."

As the barman sorted the cowboy's drink he pulled his stool closer, slapping his hand down on Isabelle's leg. Now her senses were on alert. Placing her glass down she turned to the man, if she had to deal with him it would have to be without a drink in her hand, she didn't believe in wasting perfectly good whiskey.

"Remove your hand." she gave a clear command - in her head at least, she was positive it most likely came out as nothing more than a gargle - but nonetheless she backed her words up by pushing his hand off of her leg.

He moved his hand with ease around her back and pulled her stool even closer so that her legs were rammed in between his, cementing her in place. Sober Isabelle would have twisted his arm around his back and slammed his head on top of the counter a few times for good measure by now. But she was drunk, and drunk Isabelle was struggling to know which face was his, the left, right or middle one.

"You look like your in a crisis darling, like you could be doing with some comforting." he lent forward, breathing his stale cigarette breath all over her face.

"No." she glared up at him, but he ignored her once more as he pushed his face into hers, attempting to kiss her.

Screw it. Middle face it was.

Shooting her hand up she clawed the cowboys neck as she gripped it tight and forced his head down onto the counter, knocking his hat off in the process. "What part of No don't you understand?!" she screamed at him as she moved to grab his arm and attempt do some damage, but she had completely overestimated her abilities at her current level of drunkeness. He brushed her arm to one side with ease and grabbed her by the hair, pulling her off of her stool. She let out a small yelp as she felt some hair at the bottom of her head pull away in his grip.

"Listen here bitch, if I want to have my way with you I will." he gave her a terrifying grin as he once more went to force his tongue into her mouth. She wouldn't normally fight dirty, but she was very aware that she had lost her balance and her perfect vision to alcohol, so playing dirty was the only thing that was going to get her out of this. Gripping his chest she pulled him closer as she brought her knee up hard, ramming it into his groin. He crumpled within seconds. Once he was on the floor she kicked him for good measure, satisfied that he was handled for at least a minute she picked up her drink to finish it before she moved on - she noted the barman had disappeared, coward.

"You stupid, stupid bitch!" Isabelle had only just placed her drink back down in time as he launched for her, how had he got back up so quickly? With nothing else to do she flung her arms up, hoping they would at least protect her face. But the blow that she braced for never came, instead she heard a grunt, a solid punch and then a whimper. Letting her arms drop slowly she took in the scene before her. The cowboy was on the floor, out cold, and before her with his metal arm held in front of her protectively was Bucky, glaring at the comatose form in front of him.

"Bucky?" she temporarily sobered for a split second as he turned, his anger burning into her.

"Finish your drink, we're leaving." he walked passed her to the entrance, pushing the door open with his foot.

Draining the dregs of her glass she grabbed her bag and purse, sparing a glance at the cowboy before turning back to the door where she could make out three Bucky's, two of them more blurry than the middle one. Isabelle made a mental note to her drunk self to always aim for the middle one in future drunken shenanigans - it was vital information, and she was sure that Clint and Natasha would be proud of her for deducing that. Just as she got to the door she tripped, but Bucky's arm caught her with ease.

"Jesus Izzy, how much have you had to drink?" he murmured as he flung one of her arms around his neck and held onto her waist with his other arm, cementing her to his side to assure that there would be no more falling.

"Sorry, _Dad_." she giggled as she hiccuped. He ignored her as he walked forward into the cool night air, looking down every so often to make sure that she was walking too and he wasn't just dragging her feet. "Jesus, did they make your body do sit ups whilst you were frozen?!" she exclaimed as she dug her free hand into his stomach, where she was met with pure solid muscle. "It's like walking with a human rock."

"Has anyone told you that you talk complete and utter nonsense when your drunk?" he smiled down at her, ignoring the question.

"All the time." she hiccuped again, placing a hand over her mouth as she felt her stomach shift.

He stopped, holding her away slightly. "Are you going to be sick?"

Swallowing, she took in a couple of breaths. "Nope, false alarm." she returned to giggling. Why was she giggling? She glanced back up at Bucky who had returned to focusing on the path ahead, presumably back to her apartment. In the pale moonlight she could make out his distinguished cheekbones, he had allowed a little bit of stubble to grow over the last couple of days but she thought that just made him look even more handsome. Matched with the long hair that she was totally digging and his deep blue 'come hither' eyes she was beginning to look at him in a completely different light, one where she didn't just think of him as an ex-brainwashed serial killer - but a hot one. "Your pretty." the words were out before the sober filter caught them.

"And your drunk." she noted the small smile on his lips.

"And your smiling." she cheesed at him as she prodded his face. "Whats the matter pretty boy, never been told you're pretty by a drunk girl glued to your hips before?"

"No, can't say I have."

"Liar."

"Your drunk Iz."

"Your still pretty." She hit her palm against her forehead. Between the night air and hiccuping the fumes up, her sober filter was slowly coming back into effect. "Bucky, get me back before anything else stupid comes out of my mouth."

His grin grew wider as he nodded. "Yes boss."

It didn't take long before they reached the entrance to her apartment block. Apparently deciding it was easier, Bucky scooped her up off the floor and into his arms, carrying her up the stairs with ease. "Key?" he asked as they approached the door.

She waved her purse in his face. "In here."

Wordlessly he took the bag from her and unzipped it with one hand, fishing her keys out and opening the door, once they were inside and the door was shut he placed her down gently. "Can you walk?"

"I'm drunk Bucky, not legless." she stumbled forward into the kitchen area, grabbing the fridge door for support, giggling at her own joke. "Ha, get it? Not legless? Never mind." she waved her hand at his confused expression. "You'll get it eventually." yanking the door open she pulled out two beers before walking back over and shoving one into Bucky's hand.

"Can you get drunk? Or are you like Steve where its completely impossible?" she tried to keep herself balanced as she looked up at him, at least there was only one of him now.

"I wouldn't say impossible, but it would take a lot, look Iz, I don't think this is a good idea to dri-"

"Fine!" she didn't let him finish as she placed the bottle on the counter. "No drinking, but when my sober filter comes back and I'm completely horrified at what I've done tonight you can deal with the consequences."

"I'll hold your hair as you throw up, that's about as far as I go." he grinned at her.

"Where has the Star Spangled Banner and Tin Man gone?" she paused, looking around the room, the guilt was already eating at her for the way she had spoken to Steve, but he had provoked her. Changing her mind she removed the bottle cap and took a swig of beer.

"I'd say they have both cleared out, give you a bit of breathing room." he gave her an apologetic look. "Steve know's you didn't mean any of it." he attempted to assure her, as if he could read her mind.

"I'm a horrible human being." she grumbled as she put the beer to one side, deciding that she needed to sit down.

Brushing passed him she slumped onto the sofa, a moment later he joined her. They stayed silent for a while, she stole a glance up to see that he was staring at the empty fire beneath the TV, completely zoned out, his body barely even relaxed. She could fix that easily she thought to herself - before SHIELD had recruited her she had been in the middle of a physiotherapy course. Jumping up, she stumbled around the back of the sofa and placed her hands on his shoulder's.

Jumping forward at her touch he turned to face her. "What are you doing?"

"You're tense, you need your shoulders rubbed, that's what Natasha always does to Bruce when he looks like he wants to punch Tony." she shrugged as if it made total sense. Reaching forward she pulled him back so that he was slumped again, pushing her thumbs into his back in wide circles as he sat there, completely rigid. "Y'know, this is only going to work if you chill out a bit." she stated, moving her hands to the back of his neck and continuing the circular motion.

"It's a bit hard to focus when a woman who could gut me in an instant with a knife is kneading my back from behind." he breathed, his discomfort evident.

Without thinking she walked around the sofa to face him, as he went to stand up, clearly sensing her intentions she pushed him back down by his shoulders and climbed onto his legs, each of hers straddling either side of his as her hands found his chest.

"There, now I'm not behind you, you can see that my hands are free of knives and are merely here to aid you in relaxing." she wiggled her fingers in front of his face to prove her point. No knives.

"Iz, I don't think this is a good idea." he went to move her but she grabbed his hands and held them against her hips.

"You didn't have a problem with me straddled on your lap yesterday?" she threw back at him. Drunk Isabelle knew that sober Isabelle was going to be embarrassed by how forward she was being but she didn't care. She didn't know what it was with Bucky but she felt something, how she felt something for him so quickly in such a short space of time she couldn't figure, of course it could be the alcohol, but why wait to find out? The world had it in for her, she could die tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. At least she would die with no regrets.

"We both felt it that day. It felt like we were in the right place." she whispered in his ear as she removed her hands from his and brought them up, taking the thumb of her right hand, she ran it along his cheekbone, just like he had done yesterday. He shut his eyes as he took short sharp breaths through his nose, almost leaning against her hand. "Your slightest touch whirred my senses to life, I was intrigued, I was confused. I have a rule that I don't do men, and yet there I was wanting to be even closer to you." she tilted his face up so that she could look into his eyes, his deep blue eyes that were normally reserved, but in this instant that he opened them she could have read a thousand stories through them. They were alive, and they recognised her, and it felt _good_. Sitting there with him, she didn't feel drunk anymore, in fact, she felt more alive then than she had felt in months. If she regretted it, who would care? If she didn't... only time would tell.

"Izzy," he breathed as he held onto her hips with a bit more grip, although she had a feeling that was more for himself than a lust for her. "Your drunk, we can't, I can't-"

"I feel more sober in my mind right now than I have all year." she brushed her lips against his as she moved her hands behind his neck. "I know you feel it too, the spark, like we were invincible together." she gave his bottom lip a small peck, relishing in the heat of his skin.

 _Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!_ the voice in the back of her head screamed. But she quashed it.

"Iz." he groaned, she could hear the battle in his voice as he gripped her hips harder. "We can't do this, we can-"

She cupped his face as she pushed her lips down onto his own, tired of the talking. It was only a small kiss, but as she pulled away and stared into his eyes they reflected the longing that she felt before he closed them. When he didn't move and the small sting of rejection grew she let her hands drop to her sides, she was about to climb off when he squeezed her hips tight as if he had flared back to life.

"Fuck it." his hands came up and clinched her face tight as he pressed his lips against hers - hard. The fire in her groin burst into life as she more than happily reciprocated, parting his lips with her own and deepening their kiss, indulging herself in the taste of his soft lips. For someone that had been out of the game for sixty plus years he was a damn good kisser. She tangled her hands in his hair, pulling him closer against her body - but it wasn't enough.

She had to be closer, she wanted to feel his skin against hers.

Reaching down, she went to pull his t-shirt up but his hands fell from her face in an instant and stopped her.

"Not like this Iz." he panted, leaning his head against hers, his breath tickling her lips. "Not like this, it's not right, we will both regret it if we carry on any longer."

Even if she didn't want to admit it - he was right, if her feelings were true and not just a drunken overthought of the sober confusion she had over yesterday when he had coaxed her out of her attack, then sober Isabelle could make her own choice. But she couldn't bear to lose his touch, she felt so alive with her skin touching his. Standing up and ignoring the ache as she momentarily lost contact with him she held her hand out. "Your right, but at least come to bed with me." she looked to the floor, too embarrassed to look him in the eye. "I can't stand the thought of being alone right now."

Wordlessly, he gave her a small smile before taking her hand and standing up. Without looking back at him she walked over and into her bedroom, his fingers loosely tangled in hers as he followed behind and closed the door.


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

 ** _.*._**

 _"Her eye's flew open, in one swift, fluid movement she grabbed his outstretched hand and flipping him onto the floor"_

 ** _.*._**

Bucky glanced at his phone as the sharp ray's of the morning sun reflected on the screen, 07:32 was displayed in the top right hand corner - they had only gone back to bed two hours ago. He reckoned his nightmare must have happened around about two in the morning, as they had returned from the bar just before five. His mind raced as he remembered their kiss again, she had been so confident, so alluring - she had taken him in her stride and rendered him speechless. He could of happily kissed her all night - a feeling he had long forgotten about in his years as the Winter Soldier - but in her drunken state she wanted more, and he could never, ever have done that to her when she wasn't of her own mind. It was probably wrong of him to accept her offer to come into her bedroom - even though he had no intentions - but he couldn't refuse her, not when she looked so worried - so scared. But it turned out he had nothing to worry about, the minute her head hit the pillow she curled up away from him and was fast asleep, leaving him alone with his thoughts, the memory of her in his arms and the taste of her on his lips. He shook his head - best to forget it all, he fully expected her to wake up and want to forget about the whole thing, which he could understand - but deep within him he didn't want her too.

He contemplated getting up and shutting the curtains to prevent the morning glow from waking her up, but he reasoned with himself that it didn't make a blind bit of difference - she had remained curled up in a tight ball beside him, her chest rising and falling in her deep, soundless slumber. A small part of him admitted to himself that he didn't want to move from her side either - as simple as it sounded, he enjoyed the feeling of not being alone. After the fiasco that ensued from his nightmare he thought it best that he remained awake whilst she slept, the fall out from it had proved to be disastrous. It had caught him off guard - as well as Steve and Tony - when Izzy had spiralled out of control, just when he thought he was beginning to get know her, to help her, her past had loomed up and consumed her with terrifying ferocity and speed. He wished that Steve had at least given him some information on her to prepare him - if nothing else, at least warn him - for living with her, but then again Steve had been right, it was Izzy's story to tell.

Looking down at her he studied her face - for someone who was most certainly going to have a hangover this morning she looked very relaxed. His smile faded as his eyes rested on her bruised neck, the finger print marks much clearer in the morning light, he had done that to her. There was an undercurrent of worry in the back of his mind that had been consistently nudging his self-conscience through the early hours of the morning as he mulled over everything. Izzy had been right last night, he had felt something as he calmed her from her panic attack. In fact, he had felt something about her ever since Steve had raced them down to the Medical Wing the night he had received the phone call from Natasha to say that Izzy had been hurt. It was one of the clearest memories he had.

 **o.0.o.**

 _"Shit, fuck!" Bucky watched Steve as he ran forward to meet the gurney that rolled out of the lift into Stark Towers Medical Wing, taking the hand of the patient and muttering words he could not hear._

 _As it rolled closer to him Bucky could see that the patient was a young woman, her chocolate brown hair flayed out in all directions, caked in the blood that also swamped her entire left side - she was unconscious and a worryingly pale colour. A more peculiar site was the flame haired woman he recognised as Natasha Romanoff sat on top of the comatose woman, placing all of her body weight through her hands onto the woman's shoulder, barking orders at the young female medic that greeted them._

 _"It came out of nowhere, I tried to yell for her to duck but it was too late." a slightly shaken older man with a crossbow clinched in his right hand stepped out of the lift with Tony Stark - from the files Steve had given Bucky to read he recognised him as Clint Barton, or 'Hawk Eye' as his files declared he liked to go by._

 _"It's alright, I've got the best team available to fix her, Dr Cho has been working on something new, she's headed over here with it right now." Tony spoke with a grave urgency, a side of the man Bucky had never seen. He watched with surprise as Tony placed a hand on Clint's shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly before they both followed the gurney - Bucky soundlessly fell in step behind them, not wanting to get in the way. This was obviously someone Steve cared deeply about, and if Steve cared then it had to be someone important. They gathered around the now stationary gurney, perplexed as to what they should do with themselves._

 _"Here, Nat let me take over." Steve went to replace her hands with his but she nudged him away with her shoulder._

 _"She's my responsibility!" without looking up she asserted more pressure on the wound, but Bucky could see it wasn't working as the blood seeped out between her well-placed hands, if they didn't act soon she was most certainly going to die. "She was my responsibility and we let her walk unarmed into a death trap, like hell is she dying on my watch." It was as if Natasha had read his mind._

 _No one said anything as the medic worked at her fastest pace to get the dying woman into the correct state, allowing Natasha to keep holding down pressure whilst she connected all of the various machines, placed an oxygen mask on the woman and cut away what little clothing she did have on. If Bucky didn't know any better he would say she was prostitute. Finally, when the medic was ready she went to move Natasha._

 _"If you move me are you actually going to do anything to help her or are we all just waiting for Dr Cho." she snarled, causing the young woman in front of her to stammer._

 _"W-we are waiting for Dr Cho, strictly o-on her orders."_

 _Bucky chuckled inwardly, from the small fragments that he remembered, Natasha put up a good fight against him as the Winter Soldier, he was absolutely positive that as his plain old self he did not want to cross her._

 _"In that case then, I'll stay right here." Natasha sniped, daring someone to try and make her move - Bucky certainly wasn't going to try._

 _There was a strange period of silence as the chaos settled down around them before Steve spoke - asking the question on everybody's mind. "What the hell happened?"_

 _Bucky could see Clint and Natasha glance at each other, obviously trying to figure out how much they could say - it must have been a mission, which meant that the girl on the table was an Agent. Interesting. It was Clint that spoke first, the emotion still racking his voice. "We were tailing someone, it seemed like an easy mission to begin with, he done nothing for three weeks but then tonight suddenly he had plans at this bar." Ah. That explained the clothing. Apparently nowadays there was only one way to grab a man's attention, this little detail made Bucky miss his own era - whatever happened to being a Gentleman?_

 _"We watched from above as she went in, within ten seconds of her sitting beside the target the barman had pulled a gun and blasted her at point blank range. We tried to warn her over comms..." Natasha trailed off, her emotions getting the better of her._

 _"We tried to warn her but it was too late." Clint took over. "By the time we got down there she was blacked out on the floor, a knife embedded in her arm and the target no where to be seen, I tried to follow his trail but there wasn't one, the minute his footprints left the bar there was nothing to go on." he was pacing now, shoving off Tony's arm as he attempted to calm him._

 _"Sounds like you were sent in blind." Bucky spoke quietly, surmising all the facts._

 _"No shit, Sherlock." Clint spat at him before turning to Tony. "Who's this guy?"_

 _"You have got to be kidding me!" Bucky looked over to see Natasha glancing between himself and Steve. "I expressly said not to bring him in until my mission was complete Steve, what the hell? We had a plan."_

 _"Nat, we didn't have a choice, he started remembering. Fury told us to bring him in-"_

 _"Do NOT get me started on Fury." she growled. "If Izzy dies I'll kill him myself."_

 _Ahh, so that was her name. Izzy._

 _A bucking movement below Natasha caught her off guard and sent her flying from the bed, the wound that she was just about in control of bubbled to life as blood spurted up freely at an alarming rate. Steve was on it in seconds as Clint and Tony each took a flailing leg and pinned it down._

 _"Is she having a seizure?!" Natasha called over everyone's panic as the medic inspected the woman's eyes._

 _Bucky's stomach dropped slightly as the medic looked up, the horror clear on here face. "No, sh-she's awake!"_

 _As if on cue, a blood-curdling cry of complete agony emanated from Izzy as she fought hard against those holding her down._

 _"WHAT?!" Natasha grabbed the poor medic by the scruff of her coat. "Why is she awake?!"_

 _"Dr Cho said no sedation until she arrived, her body has gone into shock, I-"_

 _"Screw Dr Cho, put her under. NOW." Natasha raised a menacing fist, although Bucky was quite sure it was for threatening purposes only. Speechless, the medic grabbed Natasha by her raised arm and pulled her to the other side of the room, showing her something on a clipboard._

 _"Bucky, a little help?!" Steve called out to him, signalling down at Izzy's flailing head. Bucky cautiously stepped forward - this was way out of his league. He had been the Winter Soldier for so long that he didn't think he could even remember how to be of help to anyone - unless they needed someone murdering of course. Walking around the table, he placed his metal arm on her forehead and held it against the bed as softly as he could under the circumstances of her trying to break free from them._

 _"Iz, Izzy, can you hear me? Your okay, we've got you, just hold on okay, hold on!" but Steve's words didn't make a blind bit of difference, her petrified, un-adjusted eyes just wandered the ceiling as she continued to scream in agony._

 _"She's in shock, she can't hear us - WHERE IS THAT DAMN SEDATION." Tony screamed just as Natasha and the medic came back._

 _"We can't administer anything, her mind has to be completely clear to go into the regeneration cradle, and only then can we help her." Bucky somehow knew those words pained Natasha to say, he was sure that if she was offered the chance to swap places she would. He could see just from a glance around the room that it wasn't just Steve that cared deeply for this woman, which only intrigued him more._

 _"Dr Cho's chopper is three minutes out." the medic blurted as a small black box attached to her hip gave off an annoying bleeping sound._

 _"Good, let's go meet her." without another word Natasha grabbed the medic once more and raced off towards to the lift._

 _Izzy's ear-piercing cries conquered the air around them, Bucky marvelled that she had the strength to scream when she had lost so much blood and her arm was hanging on by a thread - but nonetheless her anguished cries vibrated up his arm, coercing him into action. He had to do something, many a time he had sat in a chair and screamed, pinned down by metal braces with no one to help him - he could at least attempt to help her. Moving his hands carefully so as not to alarm her he encased the sides of her head as he lent down so that his face blocked the bright lights above her - which probably weren't helping with her shock. He could see clearly now that her eyes were completely unfocused, Tony was right, the shock had truly taken over her body. He would be surprised if she even remembered any of this - with haste, he spoke to her._

 _"I know this hurt's, I know it feels like your body is burning itself from the inside out and you want to escape that pain, but you gotta hold on another few seconds so that we can help you." he whispered so that only she could hear, leaning down closer to her ear. "It's all going to be okay, I promise, just hold on." he brought himself back up so he could look into her face again, he was surprised to find her body had stilled slightly and her eye's had adjusted so that they were staring straight at him. Her free arm came up and gripped his metal arm, another strangled cry burst from her throat as she pulled at him, instinctively he lent forward so that her mouth was at his ear._

 _"Kill... me." the words were barely audible, but she had certainly spoken them - he was caught off guard, glancing wordlessly up at the rest of them._

 _"What did she say?" Steve cocked his head._

 _"She-" his words were cut out by another long, spine-chilling scream._

 _"Right, she's coming out of shock, screw it I'm sedating her." Tony moved to a drawer next to the bed, readying a needle with a clear fluid._

 _"STOP!" Bucky sighed with relief as the owner of the voice - a young, serious looking lady - appeared, nudging him out the way as she shone a small torch in each of Izzy's eyes as she slumped back into unconsciousness. "We got here just in time, bring it in Natasha."_

 _Still a little disturbed from Izzy's words, Bucky decided to remain of use and walked to the entrance to help Natasha roll in a large metal coffin with two glass doors on top. He stared in wonder at the box, faint beeps and flashing lights whirred it to life._

 _"We have no time to lose." Dr Cho barked as she began to rip all of the wires off of Izzy as she indicated to Steve. "Pick her up and get her in it. Now."_

 _Steve, not one to disobey an order cradled her close as he walked over to Bucky and Natasha, carefully placing her down into the box._

 _"Everyone out, I don't want any disruptions." Dr Cho spoke with authority as she pushed a select number of buttons on the side, signalling the doors to close over the lifeless body inside. Everyone remained where they were, not saying a word. As if sensing it was an argument she was going to lose she looked around each of them. "She's going to be in here for at least three hours, if you want to stay then you can but you will just be torturing yourselves, why don't you all-"_

 _"We're staying, and that's final, my tower - my rules." Tony crossed his arms, daring Dr Cho to argue with him, but thankfully she did not. So they all stayed, and watched - hoping for a miracle to happen._

 **o.o.o**

Bucky swallowed hard. _Kill me_. Izzy had had only one brief encounter with him - on the bridge that day that the Winter Soldier met Steve. He had next to no memory of the event but he knew he had caused a lot of damage, he had only found out he hurt her when she had woken up and demanded to know why he was there in Stark Tower. Although, it explained her reaction.

His face was the first thing that she saw as she fought the shock, and the first thought that came into her head was that she had a man in front of her that was capable of putting her out of her misery. Her shimmering, hazel coloured eye's had almost compelled him to do it, to release her from her pain that was tearing her apart - literally. Her screams had vibrated through his metal arm, each fresh scream had pounded into his own memory - his own recollections of being pinned down and in agony, with no one to help him escape - or to put him out of his misery and just kill him.

After she had successfully survived the regeneration cradle she had been placed in a soft warm bed, all the comforts provided to her whether that was through an IV drip or Natasha's constant stroking of her head. He had remained in the room along with the rest of them, not taking his eye's off of her sleeping form. It was rather selfish why he had stayed really - he wanted a new memory of her eye's, he couldn't bare the fresh memory in his head of her eye's pleading him to kill her. He wasn't a killer anymore - he wasn't that person, and for some strange reason he wanted her to know that.

She had of course awoken to the collective gasps of relief from everyone surrounding her, Bucky had stayed in the background as they all caught her up on what had happened and she in turn enlightened them on Sokolov. Tony was right, the shock had prevented her from remembering her spasm, either that or she just didn't want to talk about it. It didn't take long for her eyes to rest on him, questioning his presence. The eyes that had stared him out that morning were cold and unyielding - but at least they were better than the 'please kill me' eye's. Anything was better than being asked to be a murderer.

Izzy stirred below him, pulling him from his thoughts as she turned herself over in the bed so that she now faced towards him - he was horrified to see that the bruises were even worse on that side of her neck. Without thinking he reached out with a finger and brushed the bruises lightly, wishing he could take them away.

Big mistake.

Her eye's flew open, in one swift, fluid movement she grabbed his outstretched hand and flipping him onto the floor before landing herself with a thud on top of his chest.

"Iz, Iz its okay its me!" he called out breathlessly - her entire body weight landing on his chest had winded him quite badly.

"Bucky? What are you doing in my room?" she looked down in confusion, he offered her a puzzled stare back as her eyes adjusted from her sleep. He could see the memory of last night play out on her face, ranging through the emotions - confusion, terror and horror before settling on being completely mortified.

"Oh shit." she dropped her face into her hands, shaking her head from side to side. He felt like he should comfort her, but was unsure on the best practice for that when someone had you pinned down by your chest. Instead, he gripped her waist and shifted her weight to allow himself to slide out from underneath, he was learning that 'head in hands' was the international call sign for 'I'm just going to shut down and ignore my surroundings.' Best to remove himself now before he passed out from lack of oxygen.

"Wow, was I that bad?" he joked, although regretting it instantly as she shot up on her feet and gaped at him.

"Did we...?" she glanced towards the bed.

Realizing what he had just alluded too he jumped forward to calm her now panicked eyes, mentally slapping his forehead. "Oh god no, no Iz, I meant the kiss."

"The kiss?" he watched her bite her lip as her eyes flitted from side to side, searching for the memory as she sat down on the bed, looking awfully sick. "Oh god, we kissed." her eyes bulged out of her head. "I massaged you and then sprang on you like some desperate whore, oh god." He could only stare as her head fell into her hands once again. "This is so embarrassing!" she admonished herself.

"Hey c'mon, its okay Iz, and your not a whore." he sat on the bed next to her, placing a hand on her back, ignoring the slight hum as his skin brushed hers.

"What, that I practically forced myself on you?" she gave him a sheepish glance. "Thanks for stopping it when you did. I'd rather not do something we would both regret."

"Would we have regretted it?" the words were out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

She looked up at him, thought turned into confusion, confusion turned into a glint of something else. Just as her mouth opened to speak her phone rang, stirring them from their conversation - throwing herself across the bed she scooped her phone off of the bedside table and answered it after the third ring.

"Natasha? Oh thank god." Bucky pricked his ears at that name, contact from Natasha and Clint meant that their mission was complete, and judging from Izzy's face it wasn't a good result.

"Yeah, give me an hour and we'll both be there." she ended the call as she looked over at him. "They're on route to Stark Tower, they have an update."

"Is it bad?" he couldn't gauge from her puzzled face.

"I couldn't really tell, it can't be too bad otherwise she would have told me over the phone, but her voice..." Izzy trailed off into thought, crossing her arms over the middle of her torso, something he noticed she done when she wasn't confident about something.

Wanting to avoid the conversation returning to the kiss he spoke quickly. "If we have to be there in an hour we better start getting ready." he stood up, picking his phone up off he floor, desperate to make a hasty exit.

"Bucky wait!" she ran around the bed, stopping in front of him. "About last night, I really don't know what came over me, if we had gone any further whilst I was drunk I think we definitely would have regretted it." she looked down at her feet, embarrassed.

His heart sank, he only realised now how much he was hoping that she wouldn't regret it. "It's okay Iz, if you want to forget-"

"Oh, what? No, No!" she waved her hands in front of him. "Bucky, I don't regret what _did_ happen." her eyes returned to the floor as she picked at the skin around her left thumb, her cheeks tinged with pink. "Am I embarrassed and confused? Yes of course, I really don't know how this has all happened, I mean obviously I know how it happened, I mean the science of alcohol being the cause of stupid actions is historically accurate - not that I'm calling our kiss stupid, I mean, well, y'know." he smiled as she stuttered away. "Hey!" she punched his arm, glaring up at him. "Clearly I should just be embarrassed and forget about it." she snapped as she turned away.

"No, Iz wait!" he grabbed her arm gently and pulled her back towards him, but he pulled her far closer than he meant too - causing her to stumble against his chest. She rested her head against his as she steadied herself, her eyes staring up into his own - without thinking he leaned forward and took her lips in his. For a split second he felt her freeze beneath him, leading him to think she was going to pull away, but instead she brought her hands up and tangled them through his hair like she had done last night, pulling herself closer to him as she reciprocated. Warmth oozed from the points that his skin met hers, setting off a burst of elation in his gut as it spread through him. He ached to deepen the kiss but didn't want to push her too far, so instead he just held her there as he enjoyed the sensations coursing through his body.

"Um... wow." she breathed as she broke the kiss off - much to his disappointment. Dropping her hands from his hair, she rested one on his shoulder as the other covered her mouth, he just about understood the muffled words that she spoke through her fingers. "Oh god, I've got alcohol breath." She backed away, reluctantly letting him go. "I need to shower - well we both do - and then we better get over to Stark Tower, we can talk about all this later." she indicated between them both as she backed up more towards the door.

Bucky couldn't help but grin as she turned and ran from the room, his body still flared in a range of emotions from her simple touch. Turning to the bed he picked up his phone once more and made his way out her bedroom, just as he reached the door, his phone began to violently vibrate in his hands, a flashing red light and piercing siren emanated from it, causing Bucky to drop the phone and cover his ears. Izzy raced out of the bathroom, tackling him to the ground and into the living area as the doorway to her room exploded in a flash of white, a thick, dark cloud of smoke engulfing them both.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 ** _.*._**

 _"It won't be the last time, I promise."_

 ** _.*._**

Isabelle clenched her teeth as she kept her body pressed down against Bucky's, ignoring both of their coughing fits as they helplessly inhaled the toxic fumes of the billowing smoke from her bedroom. Her ears were ringing with a deafening silence as Bucky tried his hardest to move her, but she needed to make sure there were no more explosions before she allowed them to get up. The last time she had heard that noise, one of Tony's Iron Man suits had self-imploded when Clint had accidentally hit the trigger switch for the 'emergency destruction' that was in place should the suit fall into the wrong hands. So when she had heard the distinct siren she somehow knew what was about to happen, although thankfully she had tackled Bucky out of the way just in time. At least her instincts were still sharp and intact, despite her numerous emotional breakdowns in that week alone.

"We have to get out of here Iz." Bucky spluttered as the fumes from her burning bedroom grew stronger, affecting both their vision and their ability to breathe. Not wasting anymore time he grabbed her arms and pushed her off of him, allowing himself to stand up. Without hesitating he grabbed both of her hands and pulled her up onto her feet, placing one arm across his mouth and the other over her shoulders as he guided them away from the fire and headed for the front door - but, just as he went to open it a sporadic thought caused Isabelle to stop in her tracks.

Oh god. Her Bedroom _,_ Bucky's files - _the box._

Rolling her body out of Bucky's grip she sprinted back to her bedroom without a thought for her safety, ignoring his shouts for her as she disappeared into the billowing smoke. Just before she had tackled Bucky to the ground out of harms way she had managed to kick the wailing phone to the other side of the room against the window wall, keeping the majority of the damage to that side of the room. Her curtain's and bed were a raging inferno, the flames licking up the walls were fanned further into the room towards her by the wind blowing in through the broken windows - she had to work fast. Covering her mouth with her left arm she went to her bedside cabinet first which had been knocked over by the force of the explosion, the contents lying everywhere. Ignoring everything else scattered across the floor she grabbed Bucky's files and scooped them up under her right arm - she had a feeling that Natasha had stolen these and couldn't risk their destruction if they were the only copies that weren't compromised by Sokolov. Backing away from the encroaching flames she turned quickly and started feeling around for her wardrobe door, finally, after plenty of fumbling she grasped the door handle and yanked it open. She knew from muscle memory exactly where the metal box was, yanking it open she stuffed the files inside before slamming it shut and pulling it up into her arms against her chest. What she forgot to consider was the rapidly growing inferno as she turned to be met by a fiery wall of heat that had engulfed all but the spot that she stood, it was so close that it singed her arm hair and stole what little moisture was left in her mouth. She was frozen to the spot, coughing her guts up, momentarily terrified and unable to remove her gaze from the dancing flames before her.

"IZZY?!" Bucky's strangled cries came from her left, she could just about make out his hunched figure through the thick smoke by the burning light of the fire. She went to call back to him through her coughing fit but she only inhaled more smoke, causing her to wretch and fall forward towards the flames. She braced herself for the pain but the burning sensation didn't come. Instead, a steel grip caught her and swooped her up before rushing from the room. She watched her apartment fly past in her vision as Bucky ripped open the front door and sprinted down into the clean, open air. All the while she kept an iron grip on the box, not wanting to be parted with it.

He dropped her rather unceremoniously to the ground outside, causing her to land with a thud on the stone surface of the alleyway as he bent over and continued to cough up the black smoke that had invaded his lungs - Isabelle joined him as the smoke still clawed at her neck, suffocating her. Realising she was still clutching the metal box she turfed it to her side as she bent over, expelling as much of the acrid smoke from her lungs and throat as possible.

"What the hell were you doing?!" Bucky admonished her with his hands on his knees as he wheezed slightly, recovering from his coughing fit.

"Me-memories." she managed to hiss out with a splutter as she fought to clear her airways.

His face softened at those words, almost as if he understood. He sat down beside her, rubbing her back as she continued to cough and splutter, occasionally throwing a 'sorry' his way which he had apparently elected to ignore.

"Just don't do it again, the whole running into danger with no help - you scared me Iz." she didn't have to look him in the eye to know that they were full to the brim of anger. She nodded to the floor, not intending to keep such a promise - she always found herself in the middle of trouble and that wasn't going to stop anytime soon. "What the hell was that anyway, Sokolov?" he asked, glancing around him. By now the building fire alarms were going off and the rest of the occupants had begun to pour out onto the alleyway and head towards the street. Isabelle tugged his arm and shuffled herself behind a dumpster, signalling for him to follow - it was best for now that they weren't seen.

She took a few breaths as her back hit the stone wall of the building opposite, testing her lungs to make sure her coughing fit was over before answering him. "The Internal Network on our phones must have been compromised, I knew Tony had mentioned that we would know about it if it was but I didn't think he meant by literally blowing them up." she almost laughed. Almost. The blast had nearly killed them. It didn't make sense, it was too violent for Tony, what did he expect them to do, launch the phones out of the window and hope they didn't hit anyone on the ground?

"Stark doesn't bloody do things by half measures does he." Bucky grumbled as he pulled bits of her wall from her hair before pushing a stray strand behind her ear and resting has hand on her face. "I didn't appreciate nearly losing you to an exploding phone." the words were a whisper, but they vibrated against her skin. She felt a tingle of joy at the thought that he was concerned about losing her - it had been so long since someone had cared for her in that way - and admittedly she didn't mind it, despite the circumstances.

To say she was confused about her and Bucky was the understatement of her life. They had went from nothing to something in such a short space of time, when they had awoken that morning she expected herself to be full of regret - but instead she just found herself wanting him more. Drunk Isabelle had finally done something right. A sudden need to be close to him encompassed her thoughts, clutching his hand that was still pressed against her cheek she curled in against him, and he seemingly, gladly wrapped his arms around her. They stayed like that for a while as they held onto each other tight, Bucky occasionally planting a soft kiss on her forehead, ignoring the steady build of people around them.

It was only when Isabelle sensed people looking at them that she reluctantly disentangled herself from him and stood up as she chanced a glance up at her window to see how bad the damage had got. What she didn't expect to see was some of Tony's Iron Legion already on the scene, blasting water into her apartment and helping people escape. As if on cue, Iron Man landed in front of them, the mask flipping up to reveal a startled Tony.

"What the hell did you guys do?!" he yelled as he stepped out of the opening suit, his fists balled up at his side.

"What did we do? What the hell kind of warning is that for an Internal Network being compromised?!" she lunged at Tony but Bucky caught her as her fingers skimmed his arm, holding her back against his body.

"Iz, there's people watching." he hissed in her ear.

"I don't care!" she struggled but he refused to loosen his grip. "I've lost everything because your apparent protocol for being compromised is to bloody blow everything up!" she spat at him.

"Izzy... the Internal Network is intact, that wasn't the phones." Tony cocked his head at her in confusion as he signalled for Bucky to let her go. As soon as his grip loosened she slid out and launched herself at Tony, who grabbed her outstretched fist with ease and twisted it behind her back, pulling her in against him.

"Izzy, your making a scene, calm down. Now." he ordered in her ear, keeping his grip firm and locking her in place. "What in the hell gave you the idea that the Internal Network was compromised? Do you think i'm stupid enough to put a bomb in the pockets of the few people around that can protect this Earth?!"

She stopped struggling at those words. He was right, how could she think he would do something like that? Be capable of something like that? But Bucky's phone was most certainly the cause of the explosion, and they were Tony's creation - so he had to have something to do with it. "Then why did Bucky's phone start going mental and explode? It made the exact same noise your suit makes in self-destruct mode." she demanded.

"Look, Izzy, I don't know, we can figure this all out when we are all back at the tower but for now I need to make sure everyone in your building is accounted for and as much of your apartment is saved as possible." he released his grip on her arm and let her stumble away from him, she rounded to see him step back into the Iron Man suit, letting his eyes meet Bucky's.

"Get her back to the Tower, I won't be long." and with that the suit moulded back over his body, coming to life as it flew off to join the Iron Legion in their task.

Isabelle could only stand and watch along with all the other bystanders, her heart sinking as the flames still burned across the second floor - despite the efforts of the Iron Legion - they weren't going to be able to save anything at all. Everything that mattered was in her room, her most precious possessions were in the metal box which she had thankfully remembered to rescue - but everything else, it was all gone. All of it.

"We better flag a Cab down." Bucky pulled her by her arm and moved them out of the alley and onto the street, her metal box clinched underneath his arm. She followed wordlessly, zigzagging behind him until they found a part of the road where traffic was still streaming - within seconds of him sticking his hand out a yellow cab pulled over. Opening the door for her, Bucky signalled for Isabelle to get in before he slid in beside her and slammed the door shut.

"Stark Towers." he gruffly barked at the cab driver, who only stared incredulously between them in return.

"Yeah, figures." he chuckled as his eyes rested on Bucky's arm before he pulled away from the side walk and darted into the morning traffic, which had slowed almost to a standstill as they all stared at the burning apartment on the second floor surrounded by Iron Man and his Legion. Isabelle's cool exterior wasn't mirrored on the inside - if Tony was adamant that it hadn't been his technology that set the phone off then who had?

 **o.0.o**

They sat in silence for a while as the driver rambled on, until it finally became apparent to him that they weren't up for a chat. Grumbling to himself, he turned the radio up and closed the barrier window between them and him, allowing them at last some privacy.

"If it wasn't the Internal Network being compromised, then what the hell just happened." Bucky gave her a side glance as he spoke softly, still worried about the driver hearing them.

"I don't know, but somehow this has Sokolov written all over it." she rubbed her elbow with her thumb as she crossed her arms, refusing to let the fear show on her face that somehow, her apartment had been compromised without her even knowing.

"Hey, the main thing is that we are both okay." he gently placed a hand at the top of her thigh. The gesture warmed her only for a second before reality dawned on her. Turning towards him she spoke softly, also weary of the cab driver. She didn't trust anybody around her anymore.

"Bucky, whatever this is between us has to take a back seat." she let her hand fall down on top of his own, knotting her fingers through his hand before reluctantly removing it from her leg and placing it on the seat. "We can't let the Avengers see anything going on between us or more importantly Sokolov, besides, dealing with Sokolov has to come first, if we start spending our time worrying about each other we will become blinded to whats around us - like we did this morning." she swallowed the lump in her throat as his face became unreadable, withdrawing his hand from her grip to his own leg. "We've been compromised most likely because of my behaviour the last few days, I need to become an Agent again and that means no distractions." No matter how badly she wanted the distraction currently sat beside her.

"Which means no us." the words sounded bitter in his mouth.

"Bucky, I'm not saying never, but we both know that if we don't give dealing with Sokolov our full attention more people are going to die - we just had a lucky escape." she took his hand in hers again, allowing herself this final familiar touch.

"I know Iz, I know." he squeezed her hand once before letting go. "But it doesn't mean that I have to like it." he let his hand rise to her face, once more brushing a strand of hair behind her ears before catching her off guard as he cupped her face and pulled her in to meet his lips. He didn't hold back, immediately parting her lips with his own. He was fast and aggressive as his tongue dipped tentatively into her mouth, to which she enthusiastically responded, forgetting herself for a moment. They were lost in their little bubble of them, she pulled him closer so that their bodies touched as his hands moved from her face, feeding their way through her hair as their heads rolled and followed the movements of their lips, her hands cupping his delicate angular cheeks. Without meaning to she allowed a low moan to escape as he stopped their kiss so that his lips could explore her neck - her elation was immeasurable as her groin flared with passion. It was only when a loud knock sounded in front of them that they snapped out of it, Bucky broke away first from her body, his hands still in her hair, both of them completely breathless as he looked at her with complete longing.

"We have arrived, any chance of paying and getting out? I gotta get back on the road y'know, bills to pay?!" the cab driver rudely barked at them, but Isabelle ignored him as she kept her eye's on Bucky's.

"And that is why this has to stop." she let her hands drop from his chest as he dropped his own from her hair. "We lose ourselves."

"I'm sorry, I just had too. One last time." he gave her an apologetic smile, tinged with a hint of sadness.

"It won't be the last time I promise, but its for the best, trust me." she squeezed his arm before letting go and turning her attention to the impatient driver, realising that they didn't have money. "Put this cab on Mr Stark's tab, he won't mind, I'm sure he has an agreement with your company."

Without another look at Bucky for fear that she would regret her decision, she slid back over to her side of the car and grabbed the metal box, exiting out onto the street before the entrance into Stark Tower. When Bucky joined her from the other side of the cab they walked over, allowing the hidden scanner to take a composite of their bodies to confirm their identity before the doors opened, allowing them in. They made a beeline straight for the lift, pressing the button for the top floor.

"So, whats the plan?" Bucky kept his gaze on the mirror in front of them as they entered the lift - Isabelle was shocked to see their ragged reflection, she ran a hand through the singed ends of her hair - she was a complete state. Their clothes stank, completely embedded with the black scorings of smoke, but other than that thankfully, Isabelle couldn't see any lasting damage on either of them.

"Well, firstly, I have a heck of an apology to give Steve." she rubbed her temple, the memory once again dawning on her of their argument. "And then, we go after Sokolov, if your phone exploding has anything to do with him then we are clearly just sitting ducks."

Bucky nodded, keeping his eyes firmly on hers in the mirror as he spoke. "Well, I hope your mentors discovered something to help us."

"Yeah, me too." she breathed as the doors opened. She hadn't even taken her second step out of the lift before Steve appeared in front of her, wrapping his arms around her in a tight hug.

"Thank god your both alright." he released her before clasping Bucky's hand and pulling him in for a quick hug too. Isabelle smiled, Bucky hadn't hesitated like he had last time Steve had hugged him, instead he almost appeared completely at ease.

"Steve," Isabelle touched his arm lightly as he let go of Bucky, he turned to face her, his face hard to read. "I am so, so sorry for our argument, I was such an ass hole and you didn't deserve the way I spoke to you. You were right, Oslo isn't worth it. I promise I will talk it all out with a shrink back at HQ."

He was on her immediately, pulling her back in against his chest. "The past few days have been crazy, especially for you Iz, let's just leave it in the past."

"No, Steve, you have to understand how sorry I am, it wasn't acceptable even with my circumstances." she pulled away so that she could look him in the eye, trying her best to keep her emotions at bay. "Don't let me off the hook like that."

"Izzy, it's already forgotten, I forgive you." he smiled as he nudged her arm with his own. "Plus, we've got bigger issues from the sounds of it." his face turned from a light-hearted smile to one of dismay. "Nat and Clint should be here anytime soon, then we will decide how to deal with Sokolov."

"If it wasn't Tony's security that blew my phone up then what was it?" Bucky stepped beside them, sharing a concerned glance with them both.

"I can answer that one for you Buck." Tony landed with a resounding thump on his platform outside, his voice still echoing from the Iron Man suit as he stalked forward, carrying a charred black device in his hand. They walked towards him to meet him as his suit was stripped from his body and he entered inside.

"What is that?" Steve took the object from Tony's hand, examining it.

"Well, right now it's just a hunk of charred metal, but before the blast I'd hazard a guess and say it was the cause of the explosion in your apartment." When he was met with confused silence from them he carried on. "I had Jarvis scan it, from its programming it seems its design is to take over a phones software and destroy it from the inside out by any means necessary." he retrieved the device back from Steve. "When I made these phones I did put a self-destruct mode into it, but I didn't actually create any code to connect the self-destruct mode to any command." He took the device back off of Steve, flipping it over in his hand. "Whoever created this is smart and extremely educated in the world of computing software, they practically enabled this device to build a bridge between the self-destruct mode and it's operation. I'd be impressed if it wasn't for the fact that we were the targets."

"You thinking it was Sokolov?" Steve raised his eyebrows amongst the group.

"Well, I would hazard a guess to say that he's not working alone, but what I will say is that my plans for these phones were in SHIELDS system, so at least we have confirmation that it wasn't just The Avengers Initiative and One Armed Wonder Boy over there's files that were hacked." Tony crumpled the charred remains in his fist, the anger evident in his eyes. "But most likely any file attached to our name, which means he knows absolutely everything about us."

Tony continued to ramble on but Isabelle stopped listening as her blood ran cold, without thinking she reached out for Bucky's arm, clasping it as she turned to him. "He got into in the apartment." realising what she was doing she released his arm and instead grabbed the back of the sofa and lent against it. "When the hell did he get into the apartment?"

"C'mon, Izzy, we don't know that it was def-"

"Oh, yeah, right Cap because it was one Izzy's many other enemies with her address?" Tony cut Steve off. "Your right Iz, Sokolov did get into your apartment, god knows when." he waved the device at her, "this was neatly fitted under your dresser, not a rushed job at all, and since you've occupied it since you were both put into hiding it means it was fitted before hand."

"But that's impossible!" Isabelle proclaimed. "No one knew where I lived!"

"Apart from one person." Tony held up his fore finger.

"What are you trying to say?" Isabelle whipped her head around with the rest of them to see Natasha standing by the lift, her arms crossed, with a look of absolute thunderous fury on her face. "You wouldn't be calling me a traitor now would you, Stark?"


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER 9**

 _ **.*.**_

 _"Why wait, we could be dead tomorrow. No regrets, remember?"_

 _ **.*.**_

Bucky could have taken one of his knives and effortlessly sliced the tension that filled the room. Natasha stood above them all, her eyes completely focused on Tony's with alarming ferocity as everyone else watched the pair of them in their silent stand off - apart from Izzy. She stood off to one side, arms folded around her body in a protective stance as her eyes gazed far past them all into her own little world - he could only imagine the cogs of her mind spinning profusely as she contemplated the knowledge that Sokolov had been in her apartment without her knowing it. He cursed under his breath that he couldn't comfort her, for beneath her exterior he could sense her fragility, the situation was taking its toll on her and all he wanted to do was gather her into him and hold her - he couldn't make things better, but he wished he could at least give comfort to her and make her feel safe. The only thing that stopped him reaching for her was the fact that he had unwillingly agreed with her in her decision to not to make the Avengers aware of whatever this was between them; so instead he settled for crossing his own arms and turning his glance away from her to focus on the unfolding conversation before him - no matter how hard it was.

"No Miss Romanoff, all I am saying is that you and Legolas have been speaking to the shrinks a lot recently, if their files are on the system and you told them where her address wa-"

"Our psychologist's files are held completely separate from our work files, now, unless Sokolov not only gained access to the files in the short time he was logged onto the system, but took the time to go through Dr Henry's case numbered files to find my name amongst his many, many, many patients he deals with then yes, I am sure the information came from me." Natasha challenged Tony as a weary looking Clint who had arrived in the next lift stood protectively beside her.

"Hey, it was the first logical explanation in my head." Tony threw his hands up defensively. "We are going to have to explore every option to get to the bottom of this."

"Maybe that's exactly what he want's us to do." Bucky hadn't realised he had spoken until he felt all eyes on him, including Izzy's. Clearing his throat he carried on conveying thoughts, which were rapidly laying themselves out logically in front of him like an open book. "If we waste all of our time trying to get to the bottom of the explosion it takes us away from our investigation into him and his background - from finding out where he is and what his endgame is." he continued to avoid Izzy's eyes, instead choosing to look between Steve and Tony, the two natural alpha males of the group. "It happened, we can't change that. God knows what else he knows about us and how he plans to use that against us but we can either waste our time guessing or we could be proactively looking for him and putting a stop to it all. There's only so long that we can succeed in avoiding his schemes because sooner or later, someone is going to die."

"Someone already has."

Bucky spun his body with the rest of them to face a collapsing Sam Wilson who had soundlessly landed on Tony's penthouse platform, the sweat that covered his skin gleamed in the sunshine as well as the unmistakable patches of blood. He struggled forward as his metallic wings withdrew back into their casing, he lifted a shaking hand to remove his glasses before carelessly launching them across the room and throwing himself down on a plush chair.

"Sam?" Izzy had ran towards him, tentatively placing a hand on his shoulder as she scanned his body for the source of the blood. "What's happened?"

Bucky held his breath as he feared the worst, if Sam was this shook up then it had to be bad. Real bad.

"It's Fury. He's dead."

 **o.0.o**

 _Thud. Thud. Thud._

One knife followed by a second, followed by a third. All landing perfectly in the middle of the dart board that was mounted on the wall opposite Isabelle. She readied her next three knives, her healthy arm still worked perfectly, but she was struggling to improve her aim with her damaged one.

 _Thud. Thud. Clang._

She roared with frustration once more, kicking the table of knives over before she squatted low and curled inwardly to herself, screaming until her voice went hoarse. She had been throwing for five hours now and there was still no improvement. The first knife had landed just off centre, the second had landed way off to the side and her third had bounced off the handle and landed on the floor, joining the heap of failed attempts before it.

 _It's Fury. He's dead._

The memory of Sam as he spoke those words was a burning beacon in the forefront of her mind. There had been a moment of shocked silence before Natasha had fallen forward onto her knee's as she exhaled a strangled cry, Clint was on her in seconds as he held her against him, whispering words that Isabelle couldn't decipher. Out of all of the Avengers, Natasha and Clint knew him the best - aside from Isabelle - and understandably they had taken it the hardest. Sam had talked them through the details of Fury's death but she found herself not even attempting to listen - it didn't matter how he had died, the end result was still the same - instead she focused on everyone else.

Tony without a hint of emotion at the news remained silent as he poured everyone a drink, Steve had moved himself behind Sam and placed his hand on Sam's other shoulder as Isabelle had withdrawn hers upon hearing the news. She couldn't even bring herself to look at Bucky for fear that he would look at her with such concern that she would fold into him in her grief. When Tony offered her a glass of whiskey, mumbling something about how it was an appropriate time to have one she had slapped it from his hands without thinking, causing the glass to smash across the floor in a sea of glistening white. Clint had taken a step towards her, speaking quickly in a hushed tone as he reached an arm out towards her, but the rush of blood that coursed through her ears stopped her from hearing what he was saying - and quite frankly she didn't care. As he placed the arm around her she pushed him off and sprinted away from them all towards the lift, only allowing herself to break down with the grief when the doors had firmly sealed behind her. As if J.A.R.V.I.S could sense her desperation to be alone he had sent the lift down to the training room floor above her personal apartment, where a wide array of her favourite knives had a permanent home.

And so here she had stayed for the last five hours. Ignoring the outside world, not eating - not even drinking much to her own surprise; an alcoholic beverage was the last thing she wanted. She only felt emptiness, why? She couldn't even answer that herself. She had spent the majority of her career butting heads with Nick Fury, but she had a deeply ingrained respect for him and how he conducted himself. If Sokolov could get to Fury, the most precautious man in S.H.I.E.L.D, then he could get to absolutely anyone. Fury was a warning to them, a stark reality that no matter what, Sokolov was bringing the fight to them whenever and wherever he wanted.

She had to be ready for him. She had to return to being the Agent that Fury had made her before she had been shot. Tear's and breakdowns wouldn't fix anything or help anyone.

 _"Miss Sullivan, Mr Barnes is in the lift, shall I let him in?"_ J.A.R.V.I.S's concerned voice breached her thoughts.

Isabelle allowed herself a slight smile, so far everyone but Bucky had attempted to come down to her, but she handily discovered that if she said no to J.A.R.V.I.S he readily complied. Tony giving her command over J.A.R.V.I.S within that floor was a tactical move by himself, allowing her to choose who she wanted to see. So far, Sam, Steve, Natasha and Clint had all made attempts to come down to her, but she had sent them all away - not interested in any distractions from her prime aim; full fighting fitness.

"No thank you once again, J.A.R.V.I.S." she stood up, walking to retrieve the knives from both the wall and the floor.

 _"Mr Barnes says he's not interested in talking, he's only interested in helping you with your aim Miss Sullivan."_

Silence, as she contemplated her thoughts.

 _"And he also states that if you don't grant him access, he'll just come in through the window."_ There was a slight pause before J.A.R.V.I.S's surprised voice spoke up again. " _All video and sound feed has been muted across this floor, he says you don't have to worry about... them."_

Isabelle knew what Bucky was insinuating, they could have an honest conversation without worrying about the rest of The Avengers watching. She thought for a moment, weighing up the pro's and con's. She had wanted to avoid Bucky for the very reason that all she wanted was to feel him hold her, to comfort her, because boy did she want to let her grief for Fury take hold of her. But Fury wouldn't want that. He would want her to find Sokolov and end him before anyone else was hurt, so that was what she had decided to focus on, burying her emotions deep down inside of her. But on the other hand of course, if anyone was going to help her correct her aim it would be him.

"He promises only to help?" she threw the question up to the ceiling, where she liked to imagine J.A.R.V.I.S living, between all of the nooks and cranny's.

 _"He swears on Steve's life, Miss Sullivan."_

"Okay. Let him in, but keep the surveillance feed mute J.A.R.V.I.S, I've had enough invasion into my privacy." she warned.

 _"Of course Miss Sullivan, you have the only authorisation for this floor."_

As J.A.R.V.I.S finished speaking, the lift doors slid open to reveal an extremely pissed off Bucky, who only glared at her as he stepped out, pulling his hair up into a messy bun. Isabelle watched with bemusement as he walked to the far wall that was decorated in a range of weapons from stiletto knives to double edged long swords: she could understand his anger, she had blocked him out for the past five hours when she knew he only wanted to help. Without so much as a glance in her direction he lifted a green canvas bag that held daggers no longer than her hand off of the wall and threw the bag over to her before he readied a new dart board that was free from holes. She caught the bag with ease, letting the unfamiliar weight balance out in her hands - she had never gone smaller than a drop point knife so these were foreign territory to her.

"Slow time, throw half of the bag with your good arm, and then half with your bad." Bucky pointed towards the new dartboard on the wall in front of him. "Don't stop until I tell you."

Without a word she emptied the bag onto the table beside her and organised the knives into two rows of twelve, taking the first one she threw it about a bit in her hand - allowing her arm to get a feel for it - tossing it in her grip between the sharp point and the handle. Once she was ready and felt that she had the right balance of hold and weight on the knife she launched it at the dartboard, smirking to herself as it embedded straight into the bullseye - the other eleven swiftly followed, the last one had even embedded itself into the handle of the first one she had thrown.

She turned to Bucky, ready to gloat but he silenced her with a glower. "That's your good hand now let's try your bad and see if that smirk still remains."

Ignoring his attitude she repeated the same ritual of getting a feel for the knife with her bad arm, ignoring Bucky as she sensed him walk to the other side of her, his arms crossed as he watched her prepare. Trying her best to take no notice of his stares she positioned herself like before and put all of her will behind the first knife, stepping forward slightly as she launched it at the board.

It landed with a clatter on the floor. As did the second. And the third. And the fourth.

It was only as she prepared the fifth knife with tears in her eyes that he stepped in behind her, placing his hands on her hips. She thought he was going to pull her into him but instead he twisted her hips away so that her left hip moved forward a couple of inches. He kicked her right foot with his own so that it turned in ever so slightly before pulling her right shoulder back towards him.

"Your spending so much time putting every morsel of energy behind the knife that you're completely forgetting your form, now, don't move." he stepped away from her, there was a slight pang in her stomach as their skin lost contact but she ignored it with gritted teeth. She made her choice with regards to Bucky so she had to stick to it. "Now throw again, this time don't think about it so much." she could hear the smirk in his voice as he stepped out of her line of aim.

Eyeing up the bullseye she let her arm take control this time as she launched the knife forward, making sure her posture remained as Bucky had positioned her. She was rewarded with a resounding _thud_ as the knife embedded itself on the outskirts of the board.

"Yes!" she cried aloud as she thrust her hands into the air, momentarily forgetting herself and her company.

"I wouldn't celebrate too soon, you haven't even hit the bullseye yet." Bucky picked up another knife and placed it into her hand. "You can start celebrating when all of them hit the board."

And every single one of them did, her confidence growing with each thud. Bucky picked up all twenty four daggers and placed them back on the table for her as he directed her to now land all twenty four of them in the board, not just twelve. It took her three attempts but she done it, collapsing back onto the table with relief after the twenty-fourth knife embedded itself between the one and the seven of the seventeen on the board.

"Not bad, now lets-"

"No." she held a hand up in front of her as her body sagged further into itself, covered in a sheen of sweat. "No more today."

"Okay." And with that one word Bucky stalked towards the lift, still refusing to look her in the eye as he stepped in and asked J.A.R.V.I.S to send him back up to the penthouse floor.

"Don't you dare J.A.R.V.I.S." she found herself calling out as she raised her eyebrows at Bucky. "Is that it? Your not even going to speak to me outside of giving me orders?"

"You didn't want to speak Izzy." his words weren't spoken harshly, but they weren't polite either. "You shut everyone out including me and hid yourself away down here, without any regard for anyone but yourself." he exited the lift as he brought himself level with her. "I may not of needed you but everyone else, especially Natasha did, what good are you down here when-"

"More good than being up there!" she bellowed at him. "What use is mourning? Fury would only want me to be a better Agent, he would want me to find Sokolov and end him before he hurts anyone else, and I can't do that unless I'm fully fit in all aspects." she let her fists ball at her side as she refused to look him in the eye, failing to stop the tears from welling. "My knives are my lifeline in a fight, trust me, practising down here was the most useful thing I could do for anyone."

"Iz, everyone knows that, they all wanted to help you - but you wouldn't let them." he stepped forward carefully, moving to reach out to her but appeared to think better of it and let his hand drop instead. She hid her disappointment as she found herself - despite her best efforts - still craving his touch. "You shut us out and tried to do it yourself which has helped no one."

"I just thought it was best..." she trailed off, realising that she had no argument, she had indeed been a massive jerk by stopping them all from coming down to her, instead choosing to once again go it alone. "Look, I'm sorry, I know I need to work on the whole letting people help thing." she picked at her nail sheepishly.

"Well, next time, you can consider accepting the help from those who care about you." he smiled softly at her as he crossed his arms, it was only now that she noticed he had changed into a grey fitted t-shirt and a pair of black sweat pants that sat on his hips pretty perfectly. "Isn't it funny how your situation's seem to get better when you do?" she ignored his allusion to the past few days where, indeed, when she had allowed him to help her, her day had indeed improved somewhat.

"Yes, I get it, I fucked up and your charming ass came along to help." she shoved him playfully before turning to the table as she started to place the daggers back into their bag, but he recovered quickly and stepped up behind her, his metal arm tentatively running a finger down her damaged one.

"You think I'm charming?" he teased as he lent his head against the back of her own, his breath dancing across her neck, causing her to shudder.

"Bucky, we decided not to pursue us for a while-"

"No." he grabbed her hips and spun her with ease so that she now faced him, he kept his hands cemented to her side as he pulled her in closer. "You decided for us to cool things off, and after nearly a day of not getting to talk to you or even be in the same room as you I'm calling bullshit on that decision." He brought his flesh hand up to cup her chin, all the while she stayed rooted to the spot, frozen by the battle of his words and her own common sense. "I've regretted the last 70 years of my life, of everything my hands have done without the consent of my own mind. I refuse to let you slip through my fingers because of something as small as what everyone else thinks or what Sokolov might do or how we might react in a field situation." he tilted her head up to allow himself to plant a delicate kiss right on her beating pulse.

"Bucky-" her head spun at the feel of his lips, whatever she had wanted to say was lost as her skin flared under his touch.

"Izzy, if you don't want anything to happen between us because YOU don't want this then just say and I will back off." he planted another kiss further down. "But I refuse to let you use everyone else as a reason for us not to explore what's happening between us."

"Bucky, someone could die if we are distracted by each other out in the field." she managed to breathe as she found her hands gripping onto his shoulders, pulling him closer - her body clearly not onside with her mind. He buried his head deeper into her neck as he timed his kisses to each deep breath that she took. "What if I'm so focused on you that someone gets hurt and I could have prevented it and I-"

Bucky pulled away from her so that he could look her in the eye. "Iz, you need to stop overthinking every possible situation. What if we just kept our feelings buried, huh? You think I still wouldn't look for you every spare second that I could? You think that if it came down to helping you or helping out one of the others I would pick them over you? Your telling me that you wouldn't do the same?" he released her hips so that he could intertwine their fingers together. "Our feelings are already decided, irregardless of how well we bury them the outcome will still be the same, at least for me anyway." He dropped her hands and took her face with his own, the last of her resolve fizzled with each word he spoke. "I'll protect you until my dying breath Izzy, nothing will ever change that now."

Her breath hitched at those words, her chest ballooning as the weight of them pressed onto her. She realised, with stupendous clarity that she would do the same for him, and he was right, nothing could change her mind on that now.

"Fuck it." Running her hands through his hair she pulled at the band holding his hair up, allowing it to cascade around her fingers as she gripped it tight. They fell back against the table as their lips connected, she wasted no time in parting Bucky's lips with her own, allowing herself to enjoy the sweet sensation of his breath ticking her lips before engulfing her senses in his sweet taste. Her mind free of any thoughts or worries, she guided them away from the table, his arms cocooning her body as he held her close to his own, their kiss deepening until her back connected with the wall behind them. Without skipping a beat he lifted her up by her thighs and pushed her body against the wall so that their faces were level, she wrapped her legs around his waist, keeping her hands nestled in his hair as he shifted his weight so that his hips supported her. Brushing her lips with his own he teased her before intensifying the kiss once more. A low moan rumbled in her throat as he bit her bottom lip before tracing a line of pecks along her jawline, she could feel the smirk on his lips as he moved them to her collarbone, taking care to tease her with a long pause between each touch before bringing his lips up to her ear.

"We can stop, love." he breathed, showing no conviction in his words as he buried his lips once more into her neck, causing her to inadvertently buck against him from the sheer pleasure that flared to life within her groin at his touch. "Fuck, Izzy." he muttered as she felt his passion grow against her leg. He entwined his hand through her hair as he pulled their lips together once more, kissing her with such vivacious passion that Isabelle felt her head spin from lack of oxygen.

"Bucky." she managed to breathe against his lips.

His reply came in the form of a low moan as he bit her bottom lip once more, sending her senses into overdrive. She didn't want to wait any longer, to hell with the consequences.

"Not.. here." she panted between each soft peck he bestowed upon her lips. "My apartment is below us."

He pulled back and rested his head against hers, his steel blue eyes shone with fervour as he fought to catch his breath. "Iz, we don't have too, we can take it slow, we can-"

She silenced him with her lips, unhooking her legs from his waist and letting herself drop onto her own feet. Reluctantly, she pushed herself away from him as she grabbed his metal hand and pulled him towards the lift, not losing eye contact as she bit her lip, which only seemed to drive him crazier. As they reached the waiting lift he picked her up once more and carried her in, pressing them up against the mirror. She gripped his shoulders for support as she lost herself in the sweet taste of his lips once more, the faint smell of his aftershave intoxicating her senses. She only felt hungrier for him as he devoured her, each time their lips parted he slipped his tongue in to greet her own as a low moan rumbled from her throat against his lips.

"Iz, I mean it, we can take it slow-" he attempted to remain a gentleman as he let his lips dance across her collarbone once more.

"Why wait, we could be dead tomorrow. No regrets, remember?" she used his own words against him, laughing as he growled against her skin.

"J.A.R.V.I.S my apartment please." she grinned as Bucky's frustrations boiled over and he pressed himself closer to her.

 _"Yeah. No. That won't be happening. Agent Sullivan get your ass up here now."_

Isabelle pushed herself away from Bucky as he mirrored her shocked expression, without a chance for her to process the voice or think, the lift spun to life as it shifted them up the few floors to the penthouse, it only took seconds for the doors to open to reveal a fully intact and alive Nick Fury, seething as he spoke.

"If you two lovebirds are quite done swapping spit, we ain't got all day."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N. Hey guys! Okay... so I know its been MONTHS since I last updated this but I have a legit reason I promise. I think I mentioned it before but I finished with my last job and left the UK to travel, and writing and updating whilst travelling is near impossible - fast forward to me now living and working in Wellington, New Zealand. It's only now that I have had a chance to sit back down again with this story, I had to re-read through it all again and try and make sense of the direction I was taken this story in as I left all my notes at home. So with this chapter I *think* I have got back into the swing of things again. I do recommend people re-reading the story again because if I couldn't remember what happened then you guys definitely won't!**

 **My deepest apologies once again that I abandoned the story, a lot of people had sent me PM's asking me to please update - it is 4,500 words long so at least its a decent one! Enjoy!**

 **~Ladieesailor**

 **P.S. This chapter is marked Mature as precaution.**

* * *

 _ **CHAPTER 10**_

 _.*._

" _That was alright for somebody who's been out of action for the last 70 years."_

 _.*._

The minutes ticked by, Isabelle couldn't tell if her body had slipped into shock, or if her brain had just shut down all communication between itself and her limbs to stop her from seriously injuring someone. Fury had left minutes earlier, giving no information as usual other than declaring the test was a success and now their focus could turn back to Sokolov.

"What did he mean it was a test?" she asked once more through gritted teeth. They had ignored her the first time, but she hoped her face conveyed it would not be wise to ignore her a second.

"We had to Iz, you know that field agents have to be tested before they go back out on operations." Natasha stepped around Bucky, who had stood anchored to the ground in-between her and the Avengers from the moment they left the lift. At one point she was concerned that he had morphed back into the Winter Soldier with the way he glared at Fury, but when he caught her staring the corner of his mouth turned up in a pained smile. She had also considered the potential that he was in on it with the rest of them, but that was cleared up quite abruptly when he lunged for Tony the minute the lift doors had closed on Fury. Once again Steve was Tony's saving grace as he intercepted Bucky and pinned him to the wall until he calmed down. She could only imagine that Bucky felt as betrayed as she did right now, he had clearly been left out of the loop on the fake dead Fury situation. A faint touch on her shoulder brought her back to the current situation, Natasha had sat next to her and placed what Isabelle was sure was meant to be a reassuring hand on her, but it didn't feel that way.

"I don't recall any other Agent being forced to process the death of their boss and then process his miracle respawning all within a matter of hours as a means to prove their fitness for the field." Isabelle shifted herself away from her, ignoring the hurt on Natasha's face as her hand to drop away.

"But you're not just any Agent, are you Iz?" Steve stepped forward, angling his chin up in confrontation. "In Fury's books you're on par with Natasha and Clint, of course you're not going to be tested like any regular Agent. This situation with Sokolov is going to take everything we got to deal with him, we couldn't take any chances, we needed you fit both physically and mentally, we _needed_ to make sure you could handle the conditions." He took a step back so that he could look at both her and Bucky with ease, clearing his throat. "We didn't expect what happened between you two down there to happen – we knew there was something, but from what we saw in the apartment we didn't think it had gotten past an infatuation."

If Isabelle's blood wasn't boiling before it undoubtedly was now. "I knew you had more camera's in my apartment!" she lunged for a oddly calm Tony, but was stopped mid-air by Steve, who gathered her against his chest, binding her arms by her side. She struggled and kicked against him to no avail - he wasn't budging.

"Let her go." Bucky moved to step closer, but Steve stopped him with a look.

"Izzy calm down. Now. You passed the test, it was a dirty test but it's what Fury wanted, and we just wanted you back on the team so we were willing to allow anything to happen." Steve growled into her ear as he dodged each well-placed kick with ease.

She stilled at those words. She had been so mad over the deception that she had forgotten the whole point in this was upgrading her. It was all she wanted and now she had it, so why was she creating a fuss? Her shoulders sagged with the exhaustion of it all. Detecting her deflation, Steve cautiously loosened his grip enough so that she could turn to face him, her mind whirred into overdrive. "So, let me get this straight," she raised her eyebrows more in question than of surprise. "You kill my boss to test whether I'll have another break down or not, and when I go down the other route of locking myself away and being void of all emotion and end up making out with your best friend you _still_ decide that I've passed your test." she looked around the room as she shook her head. "After the way I've acted for this past week how could you possibly want me back on the team."

"You put your emotions to one side and focused purely on your knife skills so that you would be capable of helping in the field." Tony stood up, a small grin pulling at the corner of his mouth. "That's why you passed, you're a grown adult Izzy, if you want to suck face with Capsicle 2.0 that's your choice. We would be hypocrites to object when we've all had our fair share of distracting relationships through the years." Isabelle knew he was talking about Natasha and Bruce, but that had fizzled out months ago, with Bruce feeling safer alone. If Natasha still harboured feelings she kept it to herself.

"What so that's it, no objections, no lectures, no telling us we are doing the wrong thing?" she found that hard to believe.

"Only if it gets in the way of our operational capabilities." Steve spoke with a hint of warning. "You both deserve to be happy, more than anyone else I know, but if this thing going on between you both starts causing consequences for the rest of us, I'll end it myself." The significance of Steve's words was mirrored by everyone else in the room as they silently pledged the same. The safety of everyday humans was paramount in their operations and she had no problems believing they would put her and Bucky on opposite sides of the planet if it meant the safety of others.

"And as for your little temper tantrum this last week, I suppose we can let it pass, you did nearly die after all." If his smile had reached his eye's Isabelle would have believed Tony – she knew fine well that she had a lot of making up to do for her behaviour, the thought of her argument with Steve caused her to grimace.

"Just forget about it Iz, it's in the past. New Chapter." Clint had remained quiet the whole time, but he clearly knew what she was thinking, she welcomed the arm he placed around her as he guided her to the couch. "I'm sure a crate of beer will be enough of any apology for this lot."

As the rest of them laughed at Clint the tension slowly dissipated in the room, Clint sat them down so that she was between him and Natasha whilst Steve and Bucky took the other couch.

"If everyone is done being sentimental can we get on with forming some kind of plan?" Tony threw himself into the corner of the couch, pulling out a bag of blueberries from the side of it like it was the most normal thing in the world.

Isabelle watched as Steve perched on the edge of the couch beside Bucky, a few unspoken words were exchanged between them as he nudged Bucky's arm with his own. She could only hazard a guess that that was the 1940's version of a high five. She rolled her eyes inwardly. Men.

Placing her hands down on Natasha and Clint's legs she beamed. "So Mom, Dad, what did you find on your secret mission?"

 **o.0.o**

Isabelle rolled her shoulders under the piercing hot water streaming down from above her. One of the very few advantages of staying in Stark Tower was the impeccable facilities: including her own waterfall shower, gym and throwing practice room. They had debated well into the night, Clint and Natasha hadn't learned much in their mission, they knocked on every door of Sokolov's hometown and not one person recognised the name Viktor Sokolov. The elusive wife was nowhere to be found and they failed to locate a gravestone attached to his name. Which lead them to their next enquiry, was the information they had on him accurate? Or had he falsely planted it himself to make them waste time checking out his background – he had shown he was more than capable of taking information with ease, who was to say he couldn't fabricate believable intelligence and put it out there as well? Tony reported that there were no further sightings of Sokolov on any security system throughout the city, not even from the night at the bar where the exit was conveniently in a blind spot. Everything seemed to be working out well for Sokolov and it was frustrating the Avengers, now that their only lead had ended with his hometown and they couldn't find any new surveillance on him they were stuck. Isabelle had suggested they pull him out into the open by baiting him, but that idea was shut down immediately, with no other suggestions on the cards they decided to get some shut eye and re-think things over in the morning with clearer heads. It had been a long day for everyone. Grabbing the shampoo, she lathered it through her hair, enjoying having the full use of her arm with no pain as she scrubbed her scalp - getting rid of the faint smell of smoke that still lingered on her skin. She stayed under the hot water for a while, allowing herself the time to empty her head and just enjoy the warmth and the relaxing pressure of the shower until she built up the willpower to turn it off and step out.

"Shit." She muttered as she realised her towel was still lying on her bed. Wringing her hair out as much as she could, she made her way across the heated floor and opened the door through to her bedroom, making a beeline for the towel on her bed, which just so happened to be sat right next to an impatient looking Bucky. His eyes turned to horror as he took in her naked body.

"Shit, Iz, I didn't expect you to come out naked!" he threw his metal arm up in front of his eyes, averting his gaze.

"Don't bother covering your eye's you've seen it all now, throw me the towel!" she squealed.

Comically, he felt around the bed until he grasped the towel and lunged it at her, Isabelle caught it and wrapped it around her body in one fluid motion.

"What the hell are you doing in here Bucky?" she scurried to the edge of the bed beside him, hugging the towel tight against her in sheer embarrassment.

"I wanted to talk about earlier." He spoke as she tapped him on the shoulder to make him aware it was okay to look, he dropped his arm slowly, looking anywhere but at her. "About what happened between us in the training room before…" he trailed off, evidently deciding not to mention the fact that the Avenger's and her newly resurrected boss - Nick Fury - had witnessed their passionate whim.

"What would you like to discuss?" she inched closer to him, her embarrassment from earlier slowly dissipating. His words had stirred the memories of their passion in the elevator, and in that moment she found herself wanting to be as close as possible, she watched him until his eyes finally rose to meet hers.

"Is this what you want Iz, or was it the emotions of everything that happened with Fury?"

Isabelle answered him by taking his lips with her own, softly at first, not wanting to push him – after a moment's hesitation he reciprocated, his hands snaking up her arms before cupping her neck as he deepened the kiss. Isabelle let out the whispers of a moan as Bucky pulled her right leg across him so that she was straddling his body. Instinct took over as she broke off the kiss and pushed him back onto the bed, hands resting on his ribs to keep him down.

"Is this what _you_ want Bucky? You've seen me at rock bottom, you've seen my broken side, my worst side. Do _you_ want all this trouble?" she used one hand to gesture to herself, a small part of her wanting him to say no and make their lives easier. If they carried on there was no going back. Not for her anyway.

"Iz, I've spent the last 70 years killing people with my bare hands-"

"That wasn't you though." she interjected but he held a hand up to silence her.

"And one day I will come to terms with that, and possibly even forgive myself. But the Winter Soldier is still a part of me Iz, the question is do you want to be around me whilst I deal with my regret, my worry, my shame?" He pushed her hand aside with ease and sat up straight so that their faces met. "Do you want to be with me knowing I could turn and kill you in an instant?" As if to make his point he wrapped his metal arm around her waist and flipped her over so that he was now on top, holding himself above her body by his elbows, their faces still close enough that she could feel his hot breath tickle her chin. "Do you want to be with the broken man that I am?"

She lifted her hand up and cupped his face, her thumb absently stroking his cheek. "I'm more offended that you think you could kill me in an instant." She smiled against his lips as she went to kiss him, but he pulled back.

"I'm being serious Iz, this could be dangerous for you."

Exasperated, she gripped his chin. "Bucky, everything is dangerous, I could step out of Stark Tower tomorrow and be hit by a bus or have a piano dropped on my head – the point is that we don't have to plan this or make promises, we can take this one day at a time and if it gets too much for either of us we can deal with that when it comes." She ran her hands through his hair and pulled him closer once again. "Steve said it himself, we both deserve to be happy, if that's each other then why wait?"

"But Iz-"

"No buts Bucky, we have the injections to keep you at bay, I only have to scream to have 4 of the Avengers in here within seconds and no offence but your going to need more than 'oh look at me I'm Bucky and I hurt people' to scare me away fr-"

Bucky's lips silenced her as he pressed his body against her own, kissing her long and hard. She released her body from the constraints of the towel and wrapped her legs around his waist, gripping his hair tighter as she pulled him as close as physically possible, his evident enthusiasm once more growing against her groin. Isabelle pulled at his top, grinning with delight when he got the hint and sat back up to pull his t-shirt off. Impatiently, she set to work on his trousers, but just as she was fumbling with the last button his hands came around hers and forced her to stop. With slight annoyance she looked up, only to raise her eyebrows at his expression. Bucky's eyes were roaming across her body, she could feel him take in every inch of her before looking her straight in the eye's.

"Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are?" his breath hitched in his throat as he traced a faded scar on her hip, and another just under her breastbone. "Do I even deserve you?" he muttered so faintly Isabelle only just caught his words.

Tightening her grip with her legs she used her momentum and the fact he was distracted to flip him back over so that she was back on top. Batting his hands away she finished unbuttoning his trousers as he sat up in protest.

"The last man I was with almost destroyed me Bucky, he took everything I loved and made it disappear. I have no one Bucky – absolutely no one in this world outside of the Avengers, and I am choosing you, for the first time I am choosing someone who is making me happy." Isabelle could feel the tears coming but she didn't care, in this instance she knew that she wanted Bucky Barnes in every way, past and all – if that meant dealing with the Winter Soldier then so be it. "So yes, you do deserve me, but if you decide otherwise then stop teasing me and just get out." she pulled her hands away from his trousers and went to wipe the tears that had formed on her cheeks, but Bucky beat her too it, wiping with his thumbs before replacing them with his lips, showering kisses across her cheek and down her neck until he rested his head against her breastbone. She dropped her arms onto his shoulders, holding him against her as his fingers glided along her back.

"I want you so badly Iz it hurts, but all I can think about is the fact I nearly killed you after my last nightmare." His breath danced across her nipples, ripening the ache now developing in her groin, despite the topic of conversation. "I have one condition." He brushed his lips across her chest, Isabelle bucked forward in delight as the corner of his mouth caught her nipple.

"Anything." She breathed as he pulled them both into their original position, his back against the headboard with her straddling on top.

"If I attack you as the Winter Soldier and the injections aren't around, you kill me with no hesitation, with whatever you got." He kissed her so deeply and abruptly that it sent the argument crawling up her throat plummeting back down. "I don't want to wake back up with you in a coffin, my life wouldn't be worth living." He breathed against her lips.

"Only if you promise not to compromise anything or anyone for me, if I ever get captured you don't go offering up yourself in my place, I can happily die knowing I saved you from being forced back into the Winter Solider." She retorted, avoiding a straight answer.

"Then we have a deal." He wheezed as her hand wandered down between his legs.

He had her on her back within seconds, their groins aligned and his lips caressed every part of her body that he could reach, causing her so much pleasure that her argument against his quick acceptance of the terms died on her lips, her brain instead choosing to enjoy the pleasure. Within seconds they were one, a euphoric explosion of fervour ripped through her body as they connected on all levels, the steady pace of Bucky matched with their hands and lips - exploring each other's bodies and mouths until it was too much.

"Bucky." She breathed hard against his beaded lips, the elation slowly rising through her body.

"It's okay my love." he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her tighter against him as his metal arm gripped the headboard. "I've got you."

 **o.0.o**

"Fuck." Ernie scrambled for the abundance of napkins on his desk, scrubbing at the hot chilli sauce that he had just spilled down his white shirt. Deborah was gonna kill him, this was his third white shirt this week alone and his loving wife had threatened to end him if he brought another food stained one home in the morning. Since the fire in the apartment block where he worked as a security guard had emptied out all of it's residents until the smoke damage was dealt with, his job had become a whole lot easier. His normally cash-strapped bosses had bought him a nice little portable cabin to rest in outside the block, with a working tv and radio - he was sure the extra money was down to the generosity of Mr. Stark, who had turned up at the scene with his bots - but who was he to worry about the details? He had a comfortable last few months in this job before him and Deb packed up and explored the world. He was only required to do rounds of the building twice an hour – but he only went once, no one was about at 2am to tell him otherwise.

A sharp knock at the door startled him, causing him to spill even more sauce. "Oh for god's sake, WHAT." He snapped.

A man entered the cabin, clad completely in black with his greasy limp hair hanging over his face. Ernie crinkled his nose, _great_ he sighed inwardly, another homeless person wanting him to bend the rules and let them sleep in the building. Not on his watch.

"Look, I'm sorry buddy but I can't let you into the building, your gonna have to sleep elsewhere to-HEY!" the man moved at an impossible speed and pinned Ernie up against the wall by his neck, disgust clear on his face.

"You saw me leaving Miss Sullivan's flat a few weeks ago." The man spat it out like a fact more than a question. Ernie's memory raced as he struggled to place the man and more importantly who the hell Miss Sullivan was.

Sighing with impatience the man growled. "The woman whose flat just nearly burned down."

Now that his heart rate had slightly lowered from being caught off guard, Ernie actually focused on the man. Black messy hair, even blacker eyes, a scattering of scars across his face that had him wondering if this man had a nasty run in with a shaver. His heart rate rocketed. He did remember this man.

He had been doing his final security check of all the floors in the building, he was just about ready to clock off and hand over to the day shift security guard when he heard a rustling coming from old Ms Jennings flat, the poor lady had died of natural causes at such a young age, he knew the flat was passed onto a niece, but he had never set eyes on her. The noise had caught his attention of course and he had presumed it was the infamous niece, but on inspection he found a hooded figure strolling out of the flat and turning to lock it again with a set of picks. Ernie had yelled at what he thought was a silly youth taking his chances, but when the figure turned he was met by this man in front of him now. He had frozen on the spot that night, not sure what to do without his baton or gun on him. So they had stood at an impasse, until the man moved almost as if he was floating towards him, raising a single finger to his lips before carrying on past. Ernie wasn't afraid to admit the experience had unnerved him, he should have reported it to his superiors - but it hadn't looked like the man had stole anything and Ernie was so close to retirement, if he had got dismissed for letting him go he would have said bye bye to a nice pension. But then the dawning realisation hit him. "i-it was you!" he fought against the man's grip but he wouldn't budge, he only let out a mirthless laugh. "Whatever you done that night in that flat you caused the fire!" Ernie kicked and fought harder than he had ever done in his life but it was no use, with one arm this man had him pinned.

"A smart man would have feigned complete ignorance at that question." The man cackled.

"P-Please I have a wife and two kids-"

"Oh save it." The man cut Ernie off. "You were dead the minute you let me walk away, I can't afford to have any loose ends causing me bother."

The last thing Ernie saw was the hideous twisted smile of complete joy before everything went black.

 **o.0.o**

"That was okay for somebody who's been out of action for the last 70 years." Isabelle giggled as she climbed back under the covers, they had stayed wrapped around each other for ages, chatting and giggling about all the little things, but she had needed the toilet and no amount of begging from Bucky to stay in bed could come between her and her bladder needs.

"I believe it's called muscle memory nowadays?" he countered against her lips as he gave her a soft peck when she settled back against him.

"Oh?" she squinted her eyes at him, still smiling. "Should I be jealous?"

Her comment was met with a snort. "Absolutely not, I wasn't even sure I had it in me until you stomped out of the bathroom completely naked." He joked, catching her hand as she went to hit him.

"I do not stomp!" she protested.

He answered her with a kiss.

They lay like that well into the night, Isabelle asked every possible question she could think of about his childhood, they seemed to be the only untainted memories he held and she didn't want to risk upsetting him by talking about later on in his life before the war. She was ecstatic to find plenty of stories to use as ammunition against Steve next time she had to blackmail him into doing something. Their conversation tapered off and they lay in silence, content with the touch of each other. Bucky had taken to stroking the side of her face, planting a kiss every so often on her forehead – it had been a long time since Isabelle had felt this content with her life - had felt this loved.

"Who was he?" Bucky interrupted her musings.

Isabelle glanced up at him, they were tangled together amongst the sheets in the dark, his metal arm protectively wrapped around her as she rested her head on his chest. "Who?"

"The man who almost destroyed you, who took everything." He kissed her forehead softly once more. "Who was he, and does he have anything to do with what happened to you in Oslo."

"I have one more condition." Isabelle spoke quietly but with absolute certainty. "I'm not hiding things from you I promise but when I'm ready I will tell you, until then you don't go asking Steve or Natasha or anyone else, you wait until I'm ready."

Bucky was quiet for a few minutes, his arm squeezing her at odd intervals as if to remind her he had heard her and was thinking it over.

"Okay."

"Okay?" she clarified.

"Yes, but just answer me one more question." He tilted her chin up with two fingers so that she had no where to look but him. "Is he still alive?"

"No." Isabelle kissed him once – hard – before placing her head back down against his chest. "Natasha erased him from the Earth."

"Then I agree to your condition."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:**

 **Hi people! Thank you so much for sticking with me so far and a giant HELLO! To the new readers who have added my fanfic to their reading list! I really appreciate every follower and every review, I want to keep this short and sweet so I hope you enjoy Chapter 11 - oh and I just saw Captain Marvel - 0H MY GODDESS. Chills guys, chills. ENJOY! :)**

 **~Ladieesailor**

* * *

 ** _CHAPTER 11_**

 _.*._

 _"Yeah well tell that to the SWAT team now positioned at the entrance to my Tower."_

 _.*._

 _Bucky perched with slight discomfort on the chair by Izzy's bedside, chewing his thumb nail as he watched her sleeping form. He had woken during the night in the cusps of a nightmare, and rather than go back to sleep, he had decided to sit and watch over her instead. She looked so peaceful tangled amongst the bed sheets, her nose twitching every so often in her dreams as if she were smelling something rather disgusting - the overall look was rather adorable he thought to himself. He was desperate to reach out and touch her, to feel her skin against his own, but he didn't want to wake her up – so he would just have to be content with watching over her from a distance._

" _Beautiful, isn't she."_

 _He launched himself out of the chair, arm's raised as he scanned the room for the source of the voice, but as he turned the room turned with him and slowly Izzy and her bedroom disappeared altogether._

" _No." he groaned as he shut his eyes and clasped his head between his hands; he wasn't awake at all, he had been dreaming the whole time, and it was about to turn into a nightmare. He desperately scanned the concrete room that he had grown so accustomed too – the hooded figure had to be here somewhere - this was where the nightmares always happened. A clattering in front him drew his attention and he turned to find the figure standing before him. When Bucky went to move forward, he was surprised to find his hands were now chained to the floor, stopping him in his tracks._

" _I have been busy Sergeant Barnes." The hooded figure drawled. "I have everything I need to make you the weapon you were born to be!" The level of excitement in the figure's voice matched Bucky's terror._

" _This is just a dream." he squeezed his eyes shut. He had never been self-aware in a nightmare before and it terrified him, there had to be a way to wake himself up._

" _It's no use Sergeant Barnes, you're all mine now." At the figure's words Bucky heard the door behind him open._

" _This is just a dream. This is just a dream." He kept on muttering, nothing was going to distract him - he had to think of a way to wake himself, or at least hope that he was causing a scene in reality and Izzy would stick a dart in him._

" _Bucky?"_

 _He groaned inwardly. Not her - Not Izzy. He admonished himself for thinking about her, of course his mind would bring her into the nightmare._

" _Bucky it's okay, open your eye's." He felt a hand caress his cheek but he ignored it, it was more mind games._

" _You don't have to suffer anymore, none of us do." Steve's voice echoed around the room as a hand was placed on his shoulder._

" _This is just a dream." He repeated once more, yanking at the chains that bonded him to the floor._

" _No more torturing you or your friends, we have all the answer's now Bucko, all you have to do is sit there and listen." There was no touch, but Tony's voice was unmistakable._

" _Желание_ _."_

 _Bucky's eyes flew open as he heard Izzy speak the first activation word. She was stood before him, a smile so innocent on her face that his heart broke for her._

" _Ржавый." He heard Steve taunt from behind him, Bucky went to turn but the chains tightened the more he fought them, pulling him down onto his knees. He looked around in desperation for the hooded figure but he was no where to be seen, instead, his voice echoed throughout the room._

" _I only needed the last word from the Red Book, turns out you do remember it dear old Bucky – and since this is your own nightmare, if you know it, then I know it."_

" _Семнадцать." Tony's voice echoed from the right, the three of them had formed a triangle around him._

" _No." he focused on Izzy, she had taken a step towards him, the red book he had grown to fear and hate held open in her hands. "Iz, please don't do this."_

"Рассвет." _everything else in the room faded to black, it was just him, Iz and the book. It couldn't be possible, he never remembered the trigger words, yet as she spoke he knew what was coming next. He knew his nightmares had turned him before, but in the real word the winter soldier took control whilst he was still in his nightmare, and waking himself up usually got rid of him. If all the trigger words were said in this nightmare, could that physically wake him up as the Winter Soldier? He didn't plan to let it get that far. He had broken these chains before, and he would do it again. This wasn't the real Iz - if he had to harm her he would._

 _With a mighty roar he put all of his strength into forcing his arms up and out in a hopeful attempt to break the cuffs._

" _Печь."_

 _He ignored her as he kept yanking upwards, his wrists bloodied from the metal digging into his skin, but he didn't care, he had to get out of them._

" _Девять"_

 _He felt the floor crack beneath him as he gave another almighty yank._

" _Доброкачественный"_

 _The left chain snapped. Yes! A few more yanks and he should be free. He screamed to try and block out the words, but her voice always got through to him, it was no use._

" _Возвращение на родину"_

 _The chains broke from the floor below him, not wasting any time he sprinted straight for Izzy._

" _Один" she uttered just as his body collided with hers. She didn't even fight as he pinned her to the floor and covered her mouth, stopping her from speaking._

 _As he looked around the room for anything to help him he felt his body go rigid. A sharp jag sneered his arm, he recognized this feeling from his last nightmare._

" _Thank god." He muttered aloud, he must have finally been causing a commotion in the real world if they had used the darts on him. He slumped to the side, his hands falling away from Izzy's mouth. His body numbed and his world turned dark - for once he welcomed it, he had fought the nightmare and won, there would be no Winter Soldier today. But then he heard it, faintly in the back of his mind._

 _Грузовой._

 _o.0.o_

"Do you think one is enough?" Isabelle hovered over the now still Bucky, who moments before had been flailing as he screamed, catching the attention of the Avengers upstairs. She had just hit him with the dart as Steve came crashing through the door.

"Did you hit him with the whole dart?" she watched as Steve checked Bucky's pulse, when he was satisfied he turned back towards her. "Well?"

She held the dart up in front of her, half the liquid still in it. "He hadn't turned, he was just having a nightmare… I didn't want to hit him with too much." Steve nodded but she could tell he didn't approve of the half dose.

"Well lets get him in the chair and cuffed before he wakes up." Steve went to move Bucky but Isabelle shot her hand out, stopping him.

"Just let him lay where he is, you said he hasn't woken up from these darts once as the Winter Soldier so why subject him to the humility of being restrained surrounded by friends." She dared Steve to argue with a furtive look, but once again he only nodded, the displeasure clear on his face.

"What the hell is he lying there for?!" Isabelle swiveled on the balls of her feet to see Tony standing in the doorway, the specialized cuffs for Bucky in his hand. "We don't know how he's going to wake up-"

"As I just said to Steve, he hasn't woken up from your darts once as the Winter Soldier so why would it start now?" she shuffled closer to Bucky, placing a protective hand on his thigh as she realized she was outnumbered. She understood they were looking to protect Bucky from himself, but she didn't see it that way anymore - she wanted to protect him, but she wanted to give him dignity whilst they done it - for too long he had never been afforded it.

"My tower, my rules." Tony pointed to the chair in the corner of her room. "Move him now Steve – not up for negotiation."

Sighing, Isabelle squeezed Bucky's leg once before stepping to the side. "Fine, but I'm cuffing him, you done it too tight last time." she hovered close by as Steve shifted him with ease. Taking the cuffs off Tony she gently placed them round Bucky's waiting wrists, leaving them loose enough not to dig into him.

Natasha and Clint came barreling through the door, the look on Natasha's face alarmed Isabelle as she watched her tap profusely on one of Tony's many tablets.

"Oh, nice of you guys to finally show up and help." Tony rolled his eyes at them.

"We got bigger problems, the King of Wakanda has just been assassinated." Natasha flipped the tablet around to show them all the CCTV footage of a black SUV being tailed by a figure on a motorcycle. Isabelle grimaced as a hail of bullets caused the SUV to crash against a roadside barrier, the obscure figure on the motorbike pulled up beside the car and fired sporadically into the crashed vehicle before turning and smiling at the CCTV camera. Her heart jumped into her throat as she recognized the face.

"No – NO! that's impossible he's been here all night!" she protested, glancing helplessly between Steve and Tony. "I swear, he hasn't moved I would have known."

"Let's just confirm that shall we?" Tony snatched the tablet from Natasha and ran his finger across the screen, directing the video footage to screen into the middle of the room before them all. Isabelle didn't even blink as she watched the footage of her and Bucky's passionate night played at speed before the rest of the Avengers. Steve coughed from clear discomfort and Natasha and Clint had the decency to look away, but Tony kept scrolling until the timer on the camera caught up with the current time and date and focused on them all surrounding a prone Bucky. She let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding, if anyone came for Bucky they had the evidence that he hadn't moved from her room.

"It's Sokolov, its got to be." Natasha spat. "If he can fashion the skin of a dead man's hand to his own then he is certainly capable of creating something like this."

"Yeah well tell that to the SWAT team now positioned at the entrance to my Tower." Tony turned the screen around once more so that they could all see the faint outlines of eight figures in the morning darkness.

"We can deal with them, come on Nat." Clint tapped Natasha's arm and signaled towards the door. "and bring that fancy tablet with you so we can show them the proof."

"It's gonna be okay Iz." Natasha squeezed her arm on the way past. Isabelle felt anything but comforted, her mind was already racing to find a solution on moving Bucky – she knew he wasn't safe here. Movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention, Bucky was stirring. Without hesitation she rushed over ready to remove the cuffs, but as she neared, she noted something off about the way he held his body - she slowed before him. His eyes flipped open, revealing the darkness that haunted Bucky that day he dangled her from the bridge by her neck. _Shit_ she cursed herself for putting the cuffs on loose as his metal arm came swinging towards her, knocking her hard against the wall. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was Steve hurling his body at Bucky and tackling him through the glass and out onto the balcony.

o.O.o

"Come on Iz, wake up!"

Isabelle groaned as a hand slapped her cheek, the sting of it angering her enough to force her eyes open. "Clint? Whats goin-"

"No time to explain." He pulled her up into a sitting position. "Half of SHIELD are currently in pursuit of Bucky and if we don't get there first it's going to get nasty real quick."

At first she was confused why SHIELD would be chasing Bucky, but then the memories came swarming back – the footage of Bucky supposedly assassinating a Wakandan King, the Winter Soldier's eyes as he lashed out and knocked her unconscious after waking up from sedation.

Shuddering she stood slowly, allowing Clint to support her as they stumbled to the door. "Wheres Nat?"

"Helping the rest of the gang, but Steve says the only person who will be able to get to Bucky is you, so I'm here to get you to him." Clint remained quiet as he guided them out of her bedroom and towards the lift, she blanched at the messy aftermath of the obvious fight the Winter Soldier had caused on his way out.

Isabelle didn't know if the sickness she felt in her stomach was from the evident concussion she had received from Bucky's blow, or from the knots of nerves over the fact that she had lost Bucky as quickly as she had found him.

"Where is he?" she gulped as they made it to the lift, Clint selected the Garage floor.

"Currently?" he flicked up his wrist to check the small screen on his watch. "They have him cornered down by the docks."

As the doors opened out onto the expansive garage floor she signaled to the closest car. "That will do, just throw me in the passenger seat."

In one fluid motion Clint opened the door and piled her in, before jumping across the bonnet and settling into the drivers seat.

"Hold on tight." He grinned, flaring the engine to life. With an almighty rev he sent the car flying out of the opening shutter onto the streets of New York, taking a sharp right and heading straight towards the east docks.

Isabelle tried to ignore her pounding headache but it only got worse, darkness swimming in her vision with each sharp turn that Clint took. She lent forward, folding against her knees as she tried to calm both the nausea and her spinning head.

"Iz, maybe I should take you to Helen-"

"NO!" she barked, swallowing the sickness infesting her stomach. "Get me to Bucky, I can get to him through the Winter Soldier." She was glad she sounded confident because she certainly didn't feel it.

"Any chance you guys are turning up soon?" Tony's fatigued voice flared to life through the radio.

"As long as you are staying put we will be there in 3 minutes." Clint reported as he took another sharp turn. "But I have to warn you Iz isn't in good shape I don't know what you expect her to do."

"Anything." Tony's hollow voice echoed Isabelle's biggest fear, that Bucky was beyond help. "Oh, and just to warn you, we've got a new guy in the fight, he joined us about twenty minutes ago and he's dressed as a cat." As Isabelle strained her ears she could hear the faint sound of fighting in the back ground. "He seems just as keen to get his hands on the Winter Soldier-"

"Don't call him that-" Isabelle barked. "He's still Bucky, he's still our Bucky."

"Fuck!" Tony yelped as the comms cut out. Isabelle looked helplessly towards Clint.

"We're close Iz don't worry, they should just be round the other side of these containers." Clint swerved the car around so that the passenger side of the car was facing the scene beside them. Steve, Tony and the man Isabelle could only assume was the cat person that Tony alluded too were all locked in a bitter battle with the Winter Soldier, who to her horror was actually winning against the three of them.

"Stop." She muttered as she dragged herself out of the car, losing her footing as she fought to keep balance. But they carried on, oblivious to her. Isabelle reminded herself that she was an Agent of Shield, and as much as it pained her to admit Bucky was currently her enemy right now, and she had made a promise to do everything she could to stop Bucky from causing damage as the Winter Soldier again. But on the flip side, if she could avoid bloodshed - particularly Bucky's blood - she was going to grasp at it. Inhaling a deep breath, she screamed, "STOP!"

Three heads snapped towards her, but what surprised her the most was the Winter Soldier dropping down onto one knee and bowing his head, his hands held loosely at his side, one of them grasping Steve's shield.

"What the-"

"STEVE STOP HIM!" Isabelle cut Clint off as she watched in horror as the sleek, black suited man launched himself at the Winter Soldier – the sharp claws protruding from his gloves were going straight for his neck. She internally willed Bucky to break out of the Winter Soldiers grasp and protect himself but he didn't move, staying stationary on the floor facing her. Waiting, but for what?

In the nick of time Steve intercepted the mysterious man and pinned him to the ground with the help of a reluctant looking Tony, but Izzy ignored them and sprinted straight for Bucky, praying that he had woken up from his nightmare. Skidding onto the ground before him she grabbed his face, only to be met with the eyes of the Winter Soldier once more. Stroking his face with one hand she grabbed his metal arm with the other.

"Bucky, come on – wake up!" she shook him.

"It's no use Iz, we tried." Steve grunted as he fought against the struggles of the man pinned below him. "It's not a nightmare, he's been turned although God only knows how."

"Let me go!" the mysterious man lashed out, catching Steve on the chin and knocking him over, but Tony got a grasp on him before he could get up.

"Listen here cat man we have enough problems on our plate without you adding to it." Tony growled as he strained to keep him still.

"He killed my Father! It's my right to avenge him!"

Isabelle couldn't ignore the grief in his voice. "Your Father? King T'Chaka was your father?" she queried - dawning realisation hit her. "Then you must be-"

"T'Challa." He removed his mask, slumping against Tony as the fight left him. "Although I guess its now King T'Challa."

"Tony, please show him that it wasn't Bucky." She pleaded, T'Challa looked like a man who wouldn't stop until he got what he wanted. It was bad enough that Bucky had reverted to the Winter Soldier, she couldn't cope if she lost him altogether.

"It was him, I saw the footage with my own eyes." T'Challa grunted as he pushed himself out of Tony's grip.

"Look, please just give us a minute and we can prove it wasn't him, he was set up." She pleaded, turning her focus back to the Winter Soldier. "He's a good guy, despite all the horrors he has been forced through."

"I'll give you ten seconds." T'Challa nodded towards her as he withdrew his claws.

Tony fidgeted with the chest piece of his suit before a clear image of the surveillance footage from her room was beamed into the middle of them all, once again fast forwarded to show herself and Bucky descend into sleep, and then Bucky waking as the Winter Soldier.

"See, Mr Whiskers, our guy was soundly sleeping until his nightmare, we won't bore you with the details of his screwed up back story but it wasn't him who killed your Father." Isabelle watched with sorrow as she saw Tony battle his emotions. "Sorry, by the way – I know how it feels to lose a parent."

T'Challa either didn't hear Tony's rare heartfelt words or he didn't care. "If it wasn't him, then who was it."

"His name is Viktor Sokolov, he's becoming a huge problem for us and we are trying to deal with him." Clint had been circling the group, one hand gripping his bow and the other teasing the edge of an arrow, he caught her eye and nodded once. She smiled in appreciation, one nod of her head and he would start dropping people. Through the last few weeks she had forgotten how loyal her mentor was, and she was grateful for it.

"I wish to help you." T'Challa stood, ignoring both Steve and Tony advancing on him, brandishing a hand as an idle threat. Isabelle couldn't help but chuckle to herself as both the infamous Captain America and Iron Man stopped in their tracks when the claws once more appeared.

"Head's up guys, we got company." Clint flexed his hand and within seconds he had an arrow in position to fire. A large range rover came swinging round the corner and skidded to a halt before them. Isabelle instinctively moved her body in front of the stationary winter soldier.

"What in the damn hell is going on?!" she sighed with relief as Nick Fury practically booted his door open and stomped over to them, pointing past her towards the Winter Soldier. "If you have him sitting all pretty there why didn't you bring him in?!"

"Tony?" Steve cocked his head at him and signaled for him to show the evidence.

"Oh for God's sake this is the last time I'm showing this." Tapping at his suit once more he beamed the video evidence of Bucky remaining in the room until the Winter Soldier took over. "Fury, I've just sent you a copy - I'm sick of witnessing Agent Sullivan's love life every time I have to play it."

"So what stopped him." Fury held his arm up to signal to the rest of the Agent's that had accompanied him to stand down.

"Izzy." Clint glanced towards her before carrying on explaining to Fury. "The minute she screamed stop he dropped to the floor and hasn't moved since."

Izzy ignored the stares of everyone present as they nodded in agreement.

"Agent Shield give Mr Barnes another order." Fury walked over to her, cocking his eyebrow like he always does when he silently dares her to disregard an order.

Turning back towards Bucky she gave him a quick once over, noticing Steve's shield in his hand. "Bucky, drop the shield."

Nothing.

"He won't respond to Bucky, just speak to him directly Iz, and with a bit of authority." Steve's softly spoken voice sounded from just over her shoulder.

"Drop the Shield." she oozed as much authority as she could into those three words.

A loud _thunk_ echoed as the shield was dropped from the Winter Soldiers grasp.

"Well, shit."


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Here's the new Chapter as promised guys! If you aren't aware already, I have started a new FanFic called 'Whatever It Takes' starring my newest OC Lena Clairmont with the delightful Captain America ;) Please give it a read! Updating has been tough the last few months since I'm still travelling but I've got some downtime in New Zealand and I plan to write plenty! So weekly updates between this and Whatever It Takes should keep things going! Thanks once again for reading, feel free to follow/favourite and review :)**

 **Enjoy!**

 **~Ladieesailor**

* * *

 _ **CHAPTER 12**_

 ** _.*._**

" _And stop smashing my things or you can start sharing a room with the Hulk when he's back."_

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"This complicates things." Fury turned away from her, stroking his chin as he let out a frustrated growl. "If he is listening to you then somehow you had to have activated him Agent Sullivan."

"But I don't even know Russian never mind knowing the activation words!" Isabelle cried out. "How could I possibly have activated him?"

"You don't, but his mind does, and if he happened to be dreaming about you and that mixed with the nightmares that have been causing him to sleep walk as our favourite alter ego Capsicle 2.0-"

"Alright I get the picture Tony, lets save the guessing for when hes back safely at Stark Tower." She held her hand up to stop him from surmising what she already knew deep down in her gut. She felt a little flutter of hope in her stomach that for now, at least, it appeared she could control him. If she could keep him from getting hurt and from hurting others, then hopefully she could save him both physically and mentally. T'Challa walked towards her, glancing down at the Winter Soldier as he stopped within claw-slicing distance of her body.

"This will always be the face that I see when I think of my Father's death, unless you allow me to aid you in finding this man you claim is the real killer." he raised his voice so that everyone could hear him. "I must return to my people and help them deal with the death of their King, but," he rounded on Fury, "I want to help in any way that I can, and when you require help Wakanda will be there for you, I have a feeling you will know how to contact me when that time comes." a sad smile tinged his lips as he clasped the Winter Soldier's shoulder. "I feel a deep darkness stirring within this one, I hope you can help him before its too late."

"You and us both buddy." Clint muttered.

"Thank you, T'Challa – for understanding, and the offer of your help - I pray we won't need it." Isabelle stuck a tensed hand out, releasing a deep breath when he took it after a momentary pause, before replacing his mask and breaking into a light sprint up and over the shipping containers and out of sight. Returning to the situation at hand she rounded on Steve.

"How did he snap out of it last time Steve?" she had a feeling she knew the answer, but she wanted it confirmed before they took drastic measures.

"He took a couple of dangerous knocks to the head after the battle at the Triskellion, I say lets start with knocking him out and go from there." Steve spoke despondently as he tightened the straps on his shield. If this was difficult for her she couldn't even imagine the effect this was all having on him.

"Let's not make this any messier than it needs to be – Izzy, give him the order to remain still no matter what." Tony hit his wrist and replaced his mask.

"Excuse me?!"

"I'd rather this took a minute instead of an hour so if you could be so kind." Tony motioned towards the still prone Bucky before them all. "As much as I hate to admit it he nearly had us and I'd rather he didn't get away, might as well utilise the fact he listens."

"We were supposed to protect him." She muttered loud enough for them all to hear as she knelt before him, her stomach twisting in both agony and guilt for what was about to happen. Her movement towards him hadn't caused him to stir, instead he remained looking at the floor. Taking two shaking fingers she placed them under his chin and forced it up, so that the Winter Soldier had no choice but to look at her.

"I'm sorry." Her voice broke as she took hold of his chin, oozing as much authority into her next two words. "Don't move, no matter what."

Isabelle closed her eyes as she pressed a soft kiss against his unresponsive lips, before stepping back up and away from him. Without a returning glance she walked steadily back to the car, refusing to watch the man she was growing to love be beaten into unconsciousness. Giving Steve's hand a squeeze as she passed him she nodded towards Clint. "Let's get out of here please."

 **o.O.o**

She had asked Clint to drive them around for a while until she mentally composed herself. Tears would get her no where in this situation, but the dull ache in her chest from the mornings events threatened her composure. So they drove in silence, waiting until Tony messaged them that they had Bucky back at Stark Tower and that he was secure.

"You done the right thing Iz." Clint reassured her as they exited the car into the waiting lift.

"I know." she acknowledged his attempt to make her feel better, although it done little for her conscience.

The drive had also given her time to think about how the events had played out, and there was one little detail that was bugging her. How in the hell had she managed to activate the Winter Soldier in his sleep? That was some kind of realistic-new-level-dreaming-bullshit that she was starting to grasp shouldn't really surprise her in the world that she lived in. It was only a week ago after all that a technologically advanced coffin had saved her life.

The lift came to a jarring halt on the floor of Tony's lab, the opening doors revealing a prone Bucky secured tightly to a table by his limbs and head - surrounded by Tony, Steve, Fury and Natasha. Ignoring their stares she hurried straight past them until she was within touching distance of his body, flinching at the amount of pale bruising that was slowly forming across his face and neck.

"Jesus Christ how many times did you hit him?" she spun around to Tony and Steve, rebuking them.

"Just a couple of whacks with the Caps shield, nothing too spectacular." Tony was fiddling with a small device in one hand as he stuffed blueberries into his mouth with the other. "A lot more effective than simply punching him, if it makes you feel better I didn't even get a shot in."

"You know, you could at least pretend to like him." She growled.

"Oh, I have no problem liking Bucky." Tony bit back at her. "But I have a massive problem with his crazy alter ego causing havoc in a city that's already been through enough, so my apologies Agent Sullivan if I don't show a mass murderer a bit of civility." He tossed the device onto the nearest chair. "When Bucky makes an appearance again I'll go back to being civil."

Isabelle went to retaliate but Steve cut her off with a swift slice of his hand. "That's enough the pair of you, squabbling won't help anyone – what's done is done, lets just wait for him to wake up."

"If we ever bend the rules of time and I go back into the past I'm going to find ten year old you Cap and tell him to choose better friends." Tony growled as he stomped over into the lift. "Anyone else coming with me? It doesn't take all of us to babysit him."

One by one everyone filed out of the room until it was just her and Steve, she watched patiently as he undid his gloves and dropped them to the floor before raking a hand through his hair. Without thinking she closed the distance between them and flung her arms around his neck, pulling him in as tight as her fatigued arms allowed her. "Thank you for being the one to knock him out, I just know if it was Tony the damage would have been much worse."

"Me and you both." He muttered into her shoulder as he reciprocated with a tight squeeze.

"Did you tell Peggy you loved her?" she whispered, so low she wasn't even sure if she had said it out loud. Steve froze against her body, locking them into the hug.

"It's my biggest regret that I didn't." Her heart broke for the sorrow in his voice. Since the day she had met him she had only wished happiness for Steve, but she didn't think he would ever find it, not when his happiness was in the past. "I know it's early days for you both, but when the time is right don't hesitate - you don't want to live with the regret, trust me Iz."

"Izzy?!" Her heart skipped a beat as she released Steve. "Izzy?! Where are you?!"

"Hey hey hey, it's okay Bucky I'm here," she ran over and latched onto his outstretched restrained hand, bringing her other hand to rest on his face. "I'm here." She felt her tears spill over as she was met with the tortured eye's of Bucky. Her Bucky.

 **o.O.o**

"So you remember everything?" Everyone had joined them moments after he had woken up, Tony initially refused to release Bucky from the restraints, but after plenty of pressure from both her and Steve he thankfully relented much to Isabelle's relief – until he turned into interrogation mode.

"Every single little detail." Bucky gave her hand a squeeze as he continued to answer the bombardment of questions with ease. "It wasn't like all the other times, instead of him completely taking over it was as if we shared the body but he was in the driving seat – I was completely powerless to stop him, instead I could only watch." he looked up at her from where he was sitting. "I'm sorry for knocking you out." his metal arm came up, brushing softly against her bruised face.

Isabelle squeezed his hand back, earning her a soft smile.

"But the Winter Soldier stopped the minute Agent Sullivan screamed for you to do so – do you know why Sergeant Barnes?" Fury had remained rather quiet since they had returned to Stark Tower, Isabelle could see the cogs of his mind going into overdrive; she did not like the path this conversation was inevitably going down.

"The nightmare was also different." Bucky's face dropped down as he spoke with a monotonous tone, the one his body naturally used for reporting back to a superior she had come to notice. "I was dreaming normally one second, and then the next I returned to the staging of my nightmares – but I was completely aware that it was a nightmare, yet I couldn't wake myself up, it was as if he was holding me there." The last words came out in a whisper.

"Who?" Tony stepped forward, his eyes alight with the possibility of new information.

Suddenly sheepish, Bucky withdrew into himself slightly. "In every nightmare there's a voice and a figure that taunts me and speaks to me – he's normally orchestrating the nightmare and knows a terrifying amount of details about me and the Winter Solider."

"What did he say this time?" Tony stepped closer as Isabelle held out a warning hand for him to not come any closer.

"That he only had to delve into my mind a little deeper and he found what he was looking for."

"Well don't hold us in suspense Bucko, what did he find."

Isabelle couldn't ignore the unmistakable flinch at the word Bucko – but she could ask questions later, not wanting to ruin the flow of the so far peaceful interrogation.

"The contents of the red book." His face matched the terrified tone of his voice as it crumpled in horror. "The words to activate me, and to answer your question it was Izzy that spoke them in my nightmare, which is probably why he responded to her in reality."

"How is that even possible? Surely a figment of your imagination can't just go rifling through your memories and force you to remember things?" Natasha asked as the rest of the room burst into a squabble of ideas.

"But is he a figment of your imagination?" Fury's voice reverberated over the rest of then, reducing them all into silence.

"I don't recall meeting him but something seems... familiar about him." Bucky answered plainly.

"Well sounds to me like you have an unwelcome visitor in your head Sergeant." Fury turned to a bemused Tony, who frowned when he realised all attention was on him.

"And what do you expect me to do about a figment of his imagination boss? Ask him to politely leave?" he oozed the sarcasm he had perfected over the years.

"Well, you boast you're the best at what you do, and you have this entire lab full of crazy ass bullshit – I'm sure you'll find someway to see what's going on in his mind." Picking up a briefcase Isabelle hadn't noticed until now he turned to all of them as he stepped into the lift. "Our next steps are simple. Keep him here, find out what's messing with his head and remove it before anyone else dies, we lost him for a few weeks after the Triskellion events - whose to say Sokolov didn't find him and do a little meddling?"

"What?" Bucky leapt from the table, tearing his hand from Isabelle's grasp. "Who died."

"That doesn't really matter now-"

"He's a grown man Cap you can't hide everything from him." Tony rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah because you're the champion of telling people what they need to know." Steve snapped back.

Frustrated, Bucky rounded on her. "Who did I kill."

"You didn't kill anybody Bucky, it was Sokolov, he managed to fashion a mask that was terrifyingly accurate to your own features, and used that to murder-"

"Oh for god sake just tell me who died!" he roared, his neck vain's pulsing in anger as he picked up the nearest thing at hand and launched it at the wall – stunning everyone into silence.

Isabelle remained rooted to the spot, unable to move her body or her mouth to answer. For a fleeting second she wanted to be as far away from him as possible.

"The King of Wakanda." Nat answered for them all, shooting Isabelle a sympathetic glance.

"Oh, so nobody important then." He scoffed as he thrust his head into his hands.

"Look buddy, I don't know if the blows to your head reverted you back to being a teenager but if you could drop the angst that would be a great start to figuring out our next move." Tony picked up the mangled pieces of the tablet that Bucky had thrown moments before. "And stop smashing my things or you can start sharing a room with the Hulk when he's back."

Fury cleared his throat behind them, reminding them all that he was still there. "Get your shit in one sock Avengers, don't make me lose a bet and call in a favour to deal with Sokolov." And with that confusing sentiment still hanging in the air he let the doors of the lift close on him.

"Pfft, call in a favour – as if he has other options." Tony shrugged the comments off as Isabelle shared a knowing glance with Clint and Nat. They weren't aware of them all, but they knew Fury had plenty of cards up his sleeve that he hadn't played yet - he wasn't going to have only one line of defence.

"I need some space to think." Bucky walked over to the other waiting lift, selecting the call button.

"Your not going anywhere." Tony moved to stop him but Steve placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Just give him some time alone, its been a rough day for all of us."

"You've got thirty minutes alone before I come down there, and then we are talking." Isabelle called out to him as the lift closed, but not before he gave her a curt nod in response.

"Maybe it might be best if you left him alone for a while, let him blow off some steam." Clint picked a loose apple up off the floor, slicing it expertly before offering it out.

"That's not going to get us anywhere, Sokolov means business - and we can't afford to remain ten steps behind him anymore." Isabelle took the slice offered to her. "And if there's a chance at all that this nightmare stuff has anything to do with Sokolov I want it gone now - so no, he's not getting the chance to sulk."

 **o.O.o**

Isabelle kept to her word, waiting exactly thirty minutes before she knocked on the door to her room where she had finally located him. No answer.

"Bucky, I'm coming in." pulling down on the handle she pushed the door inwards to find Bucky sat in the middle of her bed, surrounded by the Winter Soldier files she had stuffed away out of sight, and apparently out of mind.

"Fuck." She hissed to herself.

"And when were you planning to tell me about these." No word could justifiably capture the rage burning in Bucky's eye's as he signalled to the files. "When were you going to tell me you had the full detailed canvas of every soul I've ever murdered shoved away in your bottom drawer Iz?"


End file.
